Visual operations involved in within-figure processing

Abstract Six experiments utilizing variations on an inside-outside decision task revealed that increases in the distance separating two target locations within a figure produced longer response times. This distance effect was attenuated or eliminated when the inside of the figure was coloured physically but not when the figure was presented well in advance of the target dots. These results suggest the use of a between-dot scanning operation for uncoloured figures and an indexing procedure for coloured figures. The best predictor of the distance effect was associated with a scanning process based on a zoom-lens model of curve tracing in which processing speed of the operator is proportional to the width of the scanned within-figure path.

[1]  S. Ullman.  Visual routines , 1984, Cognition.

[2]  P. Jolicoeur,et al.  A Solution to the Effect of Sample Size on Outlier Elimination , 1994 .

[3]  R. Shepard,et al.  Distribution of visual attention over space. , 1983, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[4]  P. Jolicoeur,et al.  Capturing visual attention and the curve tracing operation , 1992 .

[5]  Pierre Jolicoeur,et al.  Predicting the shape of distance functions in curve tracing: Evidence for a zoom lens operator , 1991, Memory & cognition.

[6]  P Jolicoeur,et al.  Manipulating the shape of distance effects in visual curve tracing: further evidence for the zoom lens model. , 1994, Canadian journal of experimental psychology = Revue canadienne de psychologie experimentale.

[7]  S Ullman,et al.  Visual curve tracing properties. , 1991, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[8]  C. Eriksen,et al.  Movement of attentional focus across the visual field: A critical look at the evidence , 1987, Perception & psychophysics.

[9]  H E Egeth,et al.  Mental curve tracing with elementary stimuli. , 1988, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[10]  S. Yantis.  On analog movements of visual attention , 1988, Perception & psychophysics.

[11]  P. Cavanagh,et al.  A minimum motion technique for judging equiluminance , 1983 .

[12]  P Jolicoeur,et al.  Size invariance in curve tracing , 1991, Memory & cognition.

[13]  R. Shepard,et al.  Functional representations common to visual perception and imagination. , 1978, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[14]  S. Ullman,et al.  Curve tracing: A possible basic operation in the perception of spatial relations , 1986, Memory & cognition.

[15]  G. Shulman,et al.  Moving attention through visual space. , 1979, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[16]  Z. Pylyshyn.  The role of location indexes in spatial perception: A sketch of the FINST spatial-index model , 1989, Cognition.

[17]  S. Kosslyn.  Scanning visual images:Some structural implications , 1973 .

[18]  S. Kosslyn.  Image and mind , 1982 .

[19]  M. Posner,et al.  Orienting of Attention* , 1980, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.