Foveal-to-peripheral priming in letter identification reflects response bias, not enhanced visibility.
Several studies have suggested that it might be easier to identify a letter when its replication is simultaneously presented in the visual display. We have measured identification accuracy for a memorized target letter that was shown in the peripheral field in two conditions in which a letter either identical or different in shape was flashed simultaneously at fixation. The results of three forced-choice experiments showed that, contrary to Geiger and Lettvin's (1986) previous findings, an identity prime did not improve the visibility of a temporally backward masked target letter. However, the foveal prime letter could apparently bias the subject's decision so that he/she was much more ready to report the more visible prime letter as the peripheral target.
Laarni
J
J
Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Nyman
G
G
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011601:Psychophysics; D014794:Visual Fields