Abstract
In previous studies of selective attention using the Sperling partial-report paradigm, the selection criterion has been confounded with the spatial arrangement of the cued items, and target-background similarity has varied concommitantly. In this partial-report experiment, subjects are directed to report the identities of five red letters embedded in a 5 × 5 matrix. With selection criterion thus held constant, the arrangement of the cued items and the nature of the background material are varied. Both arrangement and background effects are highly significant, as is the interaction between them. Some constraints on models of visual selective attention are discussed.
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Gardner, G. T. Spatial processing characteristics in the perception of brief visual arrays. Human Performance Center Technical Report No. 23, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1970.
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This report is based on a dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Michigan in 1971 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD degree. The research was
supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency, Department of Defense, and monitored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, under Contract No. AF 49(638)-1736 with the Human Performance Center, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan. Data were reanalyzed using the facilities of the University of Illinois Computing Center, and the final version of the paper was written at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle.
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Fryklund, I. Effects of cued-set spatial arrangement and target-background similarity in the partial-report paradigm. Perception & Psychophysics 17, 375–386 (1975). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03199350
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03199350