Recognition and recall of visual area.
When visual areas are recalled the ratio of two areas is compressed relative to both the actual and perceived values (e.g. Kemp, 1988). Experiment 1 replicated this effect with a simple two-region figure, and Expt 2 showed a significant increase in area compression to occur between 2 min and 1 week when subjects were asked to recognize the two-region figure from a set of nine figures with different area ratios. Area compression was also found in Expt 3 where a different figure was used. Experiment 4 found that varying the texture of the smaller region of a two-region figure had no significant effect on area compression, and in Expt 5 subjects choose a figure in which the area was expanded but the texture was unchanged over one in which the texture was expanded with the area. Experiment 6 showed that compression of remembered areas seen in a photograph did not depend on recalled distance. In conclusion, area compression appears to arise from a gradual transformation of remembered area that does not resemble a zooming process.
Kemp
S
S
Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Lange
C
C
D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall; D011601:Psychophysics; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception