Masking disrupts recovery of location information.
In two experiments, we tested subjects' ability to localize a letter in a character string with identification controlled by varying the delay of a mask, dimming the display, or deleting some of the dots used to define the letters on the cathode-ray screen. The first experiment involved two tasks. In the first task, subjects indicated whether or not a letter named verbally had been present in an eight-letter target string. In the second task, they localized a letter named verbally in the target string; the target string was presented by using display parameters shown in the first task to hold character identification between 70% and 75% correct. In the second experiment, we tallied errors in a partial-report bar-probe study after equating performance across the manipulations of display quality. Masking disrupted subjects' ability to recover location information more than either a manipulation of stimulus luminance or a manipulation of its visual form.
Mewhort
D J
DJ
Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Huntley
M F
MF
Duff-Fraser
H
H
D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014796:Visual Perception