title: The scale bandwidth of visual search.
abstract: Observers were asked to locate a target in a brief, two-scale display. Accuracy of locating the target was measured as a function of the ratio between the two scales. At each scale ratio, the probability of locating the target as a function of the number of elements is well fit by the idea that the observer accurately monitors only a "critical" number of elements. The dependence of critical number on scale ratio is well accounted for by a model that assumes that the observer's decision is based on an evenly spaced array of samples. The sample spacing is under attentional control, but is always uniform.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Sensory Research, Syracuse University, NY 13244-5290.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verghese
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Pelli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time