Biomaterial Database

Spatial precues affect target discrimination in the absence of visual noise. 1996

J M Henderson

Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48824-1117, USA.

In 2 earlier sets of experiments, the author reported that shape discrimination in an otherwise empty visual field is facilitated when the target shape is preceded by a valid spatial precue (J. M. Henderson, 1991; J. M. Henderson & A. D. Macquistan, 1993). L. Shiu and H. Pashler (1994) recently suggested that these earlier results were due to the presence of multiple posttarget pattern masks. They concluded that precue effects are observed only when visual noise is present. The author reviews the existing evidence and presents new data supporting the view that spatial precues influence shape discrimination in the absence of visual noise, consistent with a limited capacity conception of visual-spatial attention.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D009949	Orientation	Awareness of oneself in relation to time, place and person.	Cognitive Orientation,Mental Orientation,Psychological Orientation,Cognitive Orientations,Mental Orientations,Orientation, Cognitive,Orientation, Mental,Orientation, Psychological,Orientations,Orientations, Cognitive,Orientations, Mental,Orientations, Psychological,Psychological Orientations
D010364	Pattern Recognition, Visual	Mental process to visually perceive a critical number of facts (the pattern), such as characters, shapes, displays, or designs.	Recognition, Visual Pattern,Visual Pattern Recognition
D010470	Perceptual Masking	The interference of one perceptual stimulus with another causing a decrease or lessening in perceptual effectiveness.	Masking, Perceptual,Maskings, Perceptual,Perceptual Maskings
D011601	Psychophysics	The science dealing with the correlation of the physical characteristics of a stimulus, e.g., frequency or intensity, with the response to the stimulus, in order to assess the psychologic factors involved in the relationship.	Psychophysic
D011939	Mental Recall	The process whereby a representation of past experience is elicited.	Recall, Mental
D003463	Cues	Signals for an action; that specific portion of a perceptual field or pattern of stimuli to which a subject has learned to respond.	Cue
D004193	Discrimination Learning	Learning that is manifested in the ability to respond differentially to various stimuli.	Discriminative Learning,Discrimination Learnings,Discriminative Learnings,Learning, Discrimination,Learning, Discriminative
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man