Stimulus Duration and Visual Processing Time

This study investigated the effect of small changes in tachistoscopic exposure of target stimuli on the length of interstimulus interval required to eliminate the masking effect of a subsequent stimulus. This interstimulus interval, termed the Critical ISI, is regarded as the perceptual processing time for the target. At target exposures near the 90% recognition threshold, each 2 msec. increase in target exposure reduced the critical ISI by 30 msec.