Visual comparison in a redundant display

Abstract The S s saw a target letter centered immediately above a six-letter word or nonword (scrambled collection of letters), and indicated whether the word or nonword contained the target. The S s responded faster for words than nonwords. The time savings for words persisted when a replica of the target letter was placed adjacent to each letter in the six-letter item—but only when the item was arrayed horizontally, and not when it was arrayed vertically. Similar time savings for words were obtained when, instead of presenting the target letter and six-letter item simultaneously (visual comparison), the target letter was shown immediately before (visual search) or immediately after (memory search) the six-letter item.