Some effects of distance and structure on conjunction errors

Abstract

Conjunction errors may occur when location information is lost or degraded, so that stimulus attributes that are physically separate in a display appear to be conjoined. Structural influences on conjunction error rates have been studied extensively, but distance effects obtained over different experiments have been inconsistent. These effects may be an important source of information concerning the nature of conjunction errors. In this experiment, the proximity of stimulus items was varied within two structurally different stimulus sets. Both sets produced high conjunction error rates for adjacent items, whereas rates differed for the two sets over greater distances. © 1988, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.