Abstract
Recent studies have begun to test certain fundamental assumptions underlying popular models of feature perception. This research is continued here. It was discovered that every basic assumption that was open to test in the present study was disconfirmed. However, several new characteristics of line and curve feature perception were discovered: (1) Feature perception sensitivity was inversely related to the number of features present in a stimulus pattern, and the decision criteria for reporting a feature decreased with the number of features contained in a pattern; (2) the decrements in sensitivity reported in (1) were greater for features lying inside a pattern than for those on the exterior; and (3) feature perception sensitivity actually improved if another feature was known to be correctly perceived during the same trial. Likewise, feature sensitivity decreased if another feature was missed on any trial. At the present time, a system that first extracts global and then local (more detailed) featural information provides a basis that qualitatively accounts for our findings and is also compatible with several other studies in the literature.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ashby, F. G. (1982). Deriving exact predictions from the cascade model.Psychological Review,119, 599–607.
Cobnsweet, T. N. (1970).Visual perception. New York: Academic Press.
Dodwell, P. C. (1983). The Lie transformation group model of visual perception.Perception & Psychophysics,34, 1–16.
Ebiksen, C. W., &Schultz, D. W. (1979). Information processing in visual search: A continuous flow conception and experimental results.Perception & Psychophysics,25, 249–263.
Estes, W. K. (1972). Interactions of signal and background variables in visual processing.Perception & Psychophysics,12, 278–286.
Flavell, J. A., &Draguns, J. A. (1957). A microgenetic approach to perception and thought.Psychological Bulletin,54, 197–217.
Garner, W. R., &Haun, F. (1978). Letter identification as a function of type of perceptual limitation and type of attribute.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance,4, 199–209.
Garner, W. R., &Mobton, J. (1969). Perceptual independence: Definitions, models, and experimental paradigms.Psychological Bulletin,72, 233–259.
Geyeb, L. H., &Dewald, C. G. (1973). Feature lists and confusion matrices.Perception & Psychophysics,14, 471–482.
Hoffman, J. E. (1975). Hierarchical stages in the processing of visual information.Perception & Psychophysics,111, 348–354.
Hoffman, W. C. (1966). The Lie algebra of visual perception.Journal of Mathematical Psychology,3, 65–98.
Hu, G. G., & Townsend, J. T. (1984).Feature mechanisms in the visual pattern recognition process. Manuscript in preparation.
Kinchla, R. A., Solis-Macias, V., &Hoffman, J. (1983). Attending to different levels of structure in a visual image.Perception & Psychophysics,33, 1–10.
LooMis, J. M. (1982). Analysis of tactile and visual confusion matrices.Perception & Psychophysics,31, 41–52.
Luce, R. D. (1963). Detection and recognition. In R. D. Luce, R. B. Bush, & E. Galanter (Eds.),Handbook of mathematical psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 103–189). New York: Wiley.
Lupker, J. L. (1979). On the nature of perceptual information during letter perception.Perception & Psychophysics,25, 303–312.
McClelland, J. L. (1979). On the time relations of mental processes: An examination of systems of processes in cascade.Psychological Review,86, 287–330.
McClelland, J. L., &Miller, J. (1979). Structural factors in figure perception.Perception & Psychophysics,26, 221–229.
McClelland, J. L., Rumelhart, D. E. (1981). An interactive activation model of context effects in letter perception: Part 1. Account of basic findings.Psychological Review,88, 375–407.
Navon, D. (1977). Forest before trees: The precedence of global features in visual perception.Cognitive Psychology,9, 353–383.
Prinzmetal, W. (1981). Principles of feature integration in visual perception.Perception & Psychophysics,30, 330–340.
Rumelhart, D. E. (1971).A multicomponent theory of the confusion among briefly exposed alphabetic characters. (Tech. Rep. No. 22). San Diego: University of California, Center for Human Information Processing.
Rumelhart, D. E., &McClelland, J. L. (1982). An interaction activation model of context effects in letter perception: Part 2. The contextual enhancement effect and some tests and extensions of the model.Psychological Review,89, 60–94.
Rumelhart, D. E., &Siple, P. (1974). Process of recognizing tachistoscopically presented words.Psychological Review,81, 99–113.
Schendel, J. D., &Shaw, P. (1976). A test of the generality of the word-context effect.Perception & Psychophysics,19, 383–393.
Townsend, J. T. (1971a). Alphabetic confusion: A test of models for individuals.Perception & Psychophysics,9, 449–454.
Townsend, J. T. (1971b). Theoretical analysis of an alphabetic confusion matrix.Perception & Psychophysics,9, 40–50.
Townsend, J. T., &Ashby, F. G. (1982). Experimental test of contemporary mathematical models of visual letter recognition.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance,8, 834–864.
Townsend, J. T., &Ashby, F. G. (1983).Stochastic modeling of elementary psychological processes. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Townsend, J. T., Hu, G. G., &Ashby, F. G. (1980). A test of feature sampling independence with orthogonal straight lines.Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society,15, 163–168.
Townsend, J. T., Hu, G. G., &Ashby, F. G. (1981). Perceptual sampling of orthogonal straight line features.Psychological Research,43, 259–275.
Townsend, J. T., &Landon, D. E. (1982). An experimental and theoretical investigation of the constant-ratio rule and other models of visual letter confusion.Journal of Mathematical Psychology,25, 119–162.
Townsend, J. T., &Landon, D. E. (1983). Mathematical models of recognition and confusion in psychology.International Journal of Mathematical Social Sciences,4, 25–71.
Wandmancher, J. (1976). Multicomponent theory of perception: Feature extraction and response decision in visual identification.Psychological Research,39, 17–37.
Wandmacher, J., Kammerer, E.-M., &Glowalla, U. (1980). Context dependence in visual feature processing.Psychological Research,42, 335–351.
Watt, W. C. (1980). What is the proper composition of the alphabet? II. Composition.Ars Semeiotica,3, 3–46.
Weisstein, N., &Maguire, W. (1978). Computing the next step: Psychophysical measures of representation and interpretation. In E. M. Riseman & A. R. Hanson (Eds.),Computer vision systems. New York: Academic Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Some of the writing of this paper took place while the first author was a visiting scholar at the School of Social Sciences, University of California at Irvine.
This research was supported in part by NSF Grant 7920298A2.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Townsend, J.T., Hu, G.G. & Evans, R.J. Modeling feature perception in brief displays with evidence for positive interdependencies. Perception & Psychophysics 36, 35–49 (1984). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206352
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206352