The scale bandwidth of visual search.
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.
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Institute for Sensory Research, Syracuse University, NY 13244-5290.
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D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time