Redundancy of noise elements and signals in visual detection of letters

Abstract

Forced-choice detection was studied in relation to heterogeneity of noise letters and multiple signal letters within tachistoscopic displays. Curves plotting both probability and latency of correct detections vs number of redundant signals at different display sizes exhibit significant interactions with heterogeneity of the noise background, but do not differ as a function of similarity among redundant signals. Application of interactive and independent channels models indicated that noise redundancy operates to a major extent through effects of signal-noise confusability at the decision level, but may also involve perceptual interaction at the level of feature detectors. © 1974 Psychonomic Society, Inc.