Interval Effects in Tachistoscopic Recognition

Abstract

<p> Three experiments, involving 250 subjects, were performed which support the conclusion that a tone cue presented shortly before a tachistoscopic stimulus facilitates tachistoscopic recognition. With tone-stimulus intervals below two seconds no threshold differences occurred. With intervals between two and eight seconds, the shorter the interval was, the lower thresholds were, and the more practice decrement observed. Experiment II showed that while the tone-stimulus interval affects thresholds the most, the interval between successive exposures of a stimulus affects thresholds. We concluded that as this interval is lengthened, the subject forgets information already gained. Experiment III showed that training in a reaction time task transferred positively to a tachistoscopic task when a two second tone-stimulus interval was used in both tasks. Reasons for the facilitative effect of the tone were discussed.</p>