Abstract
The hypothesis that visual representations for lines and/or points are independent structural units was tested using similarity judgment and speeded discrimination for pairs of six-segment letter-like figures. The stimuli were constructed such that each of two comparison figures had five segments in common with a standard figure. One figure was similar to the standard in its higher order structure (connectedness and closedness properties), whereas the other differed. The results show that the figures with similar higher order structure were systematically judged more similar to the standard than the figures with different structure. The former were also more difficult to discriminate from standards than the latter, as indicated by both time and error measurements. These effects were less pronounced in sequential than in simultaneous comparisons.
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Rumelhart, D. E.A multi-component theory of confusion among briefly exposed alphabetic characters (Tech. Rep. 22). San Diego: University of California, Center for Human Information Processing, 1971.
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Palmer, S.E. Structural aspects of visual similarity. Memory & Cognition 6, 91–97 (1978). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197433
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197433