title: Limitations of rapid parallel processing in the detection of long and short oriented line targets.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the detectability of a uniquely oriented line element in a field of uniformly oriented line elements depends on element length. Displays containing various numbers of elements were presented briefly and followed by a mask. The length and orientation of the elements were varied. With longer (1.0-deg) elements, detection performance varied little with the number of elements present. With shorter (0.25-deg) elements, performance worsened as the element number increased, especially when the uniformly oriented elements were oblique. It seems that rapid spatially parallel processes facilitate detection of targets in many-element displays of long elements but not of short elements.
authors.affiliation: MacKay Institute of Communication and Neuroscience, Keele University, Staffordshire, UK. l.m.doherty@cns.keele.ac.uk
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Doherty
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Foster
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D015588:Observer Variation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012016:Reference Values; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014792:Visual Acuity