Pattern recognition and eye-movement parameters

Pattern perception was studied by recording eye movements while Ss visually scanned nine simultaneously presented patterns of asterisks for target patterns. Pattern parameters studied were: similarity of target patterns to non-target patterns (absolute difference in the number of elements), number of target elements, and frequency of targets. Systematic correlation between the first two pattern parameters and eyemovement parameters were found. Mean duration and mean number of fixations on targets and also on non-targets increased with increased similarity. Mean duration and mean number of fixations increased on targets with an increase in the number of target elements. Non-target patterns were perceived more auicfely than targets. Fixations of longer duration were required to perceive the original target than to identify the other target patterns subsequently. The eye-movement results provide the basis for developing inferences about higher order processing of visual stimuli.