The scale bandwidth of visual search

Journal Article

Abstract

Observers were asked to locate a target in a brief, two-scale display. Accuracy of locating the target was measured as a function of the ratio between the two scales. At each scale ratio, the probability of locating the target as a function of the number of elements is well fit by the idea that the observer accurately monitors only a "critical" number of elements. The dependence of critical number on scale ratio is well accounted for by a model that assumes that the observer's decision is based on an evenly spaced array of samples. The sample spacing is under attentional control, but is always uniform.

Journal

Vision research

Volume

34

Number of Pages

955-62

Year of Publication

1994