Abstract
This paper describes an empirical investigation of brief stimulus durations produced by raster-scan CRT displays operating at a line frequency of 60 Hz. Timing accuracy of stimulus presentation was examined by empirical measurement of the number of refresh cycles (16.67 msec/cycle) occurring over a range of nominal time intervals (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 msec). For our microcomputer system with multiple CRT terminals, the results suggest that the minimum nominal time interval used should be 20 msec to ensure a maximally reliable stimulus presentation and that successive nominal time intervals should be separated by at least 30 msec. The empirical timing check provided useful information for determining the microcomputer system’s capabilities and limitations in experiments involving brief stimulus presentations.
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This research was supported in part by a research career award from the National Institute of Mental Health and a grant from the Army Research Institute for Behavioral and Social Sciences, both to the third author. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not constitute endorsement by the U.S. Army. We thank Paulette Smith, Lisa Schriewer, and Andrew Homer for their help with this project.
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Broyles, J.W., Prill, K.A., Marx, M.H. et al. An empirical approach to the timing limitations of the raster-scan CRT. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 20, 287–289 (1982). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330103
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330103