title: Identification of partially presented meaningless patterns: effect of completeness and distinctiveness.
abstract: The role of parts versus that of wholes in a visual perception has been debated for a century as two opposite approaches, namely, an analytic and holistic. In two psychophysical experiments we investigated whether the stimulus completeness or distinctiveness is essential for identification of the partially presented patterns under brief presentation conditions. For this purpose, a special class of stimuli was constructed in such a way that the patterns could be divided into informative and redundant parts. The first experiment clearly demonstrated the importance of the redundant part for effective pattern identification for the majority of subjects. The second experiment revealed the direct dependence of identification accuracy of the patterns on their completeness (2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 elements). Familiarisation of subjects with the test stimuli influenced the strength of this dependence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Vilnius University, M.K. Ciurlionio 21/27, 03101, Vilnius, Lithuania. alvydas.soliunas@gf.vu.lt
authors.forename: Alvydas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Soliūnas
authors.forename: Ona
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gurciniene
authors.forename: Aidas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alaburda
authors.forename: Osvaldas
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ruksenas
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010466:Perceptual Closure / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors