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RECOGNITION OF AMBIGUOUS AND UNAMBIGUOUS VISUAL CONFIGURATIONS WITH SHORT AND LONGER EXPOSURES*

1960; Wiley; Volume: 51; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.2044-8295.1960.tb00732.x

2044-8295

Craig M. Mooney,

Visual perception and processing mechanisms

Three kinds of novel visual configurations—forms with incidental details, formless masses of details, forms devoid of details—comprised two parallel series for presentation in a running sequence of initial and subsequent appearances, at varying intervals. Eight of each kind of configuration comprised a series; the twenty‐four, appearing initially, and subsequently, constituted a sequence of forty‐eight presentations. In the sequence, two of each kind of configuration reappeared after one intervening perceptual occasion, two after five such interventions, two after ten, and two after fifteen. Subjects viewed one sequence where the configurations were tachistoscopically exposed for 0·07 sec., and the alternate sequence with configurations exposed for 5·0 sec. A small, but significant, advantage accrued to the method of visual inspection, on both perceptual counts, under all varied experimental conditions. Apart from this, the two methods could not be differentiated on the basis of configural diversity or of lengthening of the intervals between the initial and subsequent appearances of the configurations. This want of evidence for the premise that the superiority of the method of visual inspection might be uniquely attributed to the efficacy of viewing time and scanning eye movements by virtue of contingent cognitive associations suggests that perceptual learning occurs identically with the two methods of observation and that the overall difference can be attributed to incidental procedural factors. It is concluded on the basis of all evidence in this and earlier related studies that this simple kind of perceptual learning is not prosecuted on the basis of viewing time and scanning eye movements and that its explanation must be governed by the fact that it occurs through the single brief glance.