title: Rate of imagery processing in two versus three dimensions.
abstract: A series of five experiments was conducted to test the optimal speed for performing two- and three-dimensional imagery tasks. Subjects were required to keep track of the location of a pathway in an imagined matrix, as the directions of its successive movements were described verbally. Matrices varied in size and in number of spatial dimensions, with two-dimensional matrices drawn on cardboard and three-dimensional ones built from wooden blocks. When subjects were able to dictate the rate of presentation of the terms describing the pathway, they preferred slower rates for three-dimensional than for two-dimensional stimuli. In subsequent experiments, very fast presentation rates had a larger detrimental effect on performance with three-dimensional matrices than with two-dimensional matrices. A comparison of the patterns of performance for subjects who generally scored high with the patterns for those who scored low showed a stronger effect of dimensionality for poor performers, suggesting that individual differences mediate performance on the task.
authors.affiliation: Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, GA 30319.
authors.forename: N H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Kerr
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003210:Concept Formation; D003867:Depth Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011930:Reaction Time