The effect of redundant stimulus elements on visual discrimination as a function of element heterogeneity, equal discriminability, and position uncertainty

Authors

W. R. Garner, Yale University
J. H. Flowers, Yale University

Date of this Version

2004

Comments

Published in Great Plains Quarterly 24:4 (Fall 2004). Copyright © 2005 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

Garner and Lee (1962) investigated the visual discrimination of patterns of XS and Os presented at short duration and low contrast, and found that as redundant Xs and/or Os were added to the patterns there was no improvement in discrimination. In fact, there was clear evidence that performance was better if S deliberately avoided use of the redundant elements by attending only to part of the stimulus pattern, thus intentionally excluding perception of the redundant elements.