Central capacity limits in consistent mapping, visual search tasks: Four channels or more?

Abstract The issue of limits in central processing capacity is of long-standing interest to psychologists. Some behaviors appear to draw on limited resources, others appear to have no resource limits. The existence of behaviors which do not compete for limited resources is suggested by the results from visual search experiments which keep constant the mapping of stimuli to responses. Behavior in such experiments is referred to as automatic detection. Results are reported which suggest, unlike the above, that resources are really quite limited in consistent mapping, visual search tasks. The results from this study (and other studies) are in agreement with a model of visual information processing behavior which assumes that the maximum number of cognitive comparison operations which can be executed simultaneously is restricted to somewhere in the neighborhood of four (the exact number depending on the subject). The model makes a strong prediction about the relation between the rate of stimulus presentation and accuracy, a prediction which is supported by the results. It is tentatively proposed that the steady-state, limited-channel model developed here may provide the beginnings of an integrated treatment of certain key results from subitizing and iconic memory experiments as well as visual search experiments.

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