EFFECT OF STIMULUS DEGRADATION AND SIMILARITY ON TRADE-OFF BETWEEN SPEED AND ACCURACY IN ABSOLUTE JUDGMENTS

Examines the effects of reduced discriminability on absolute judgments in speeded and unspeeded tasks. 21 Army enlisted men with 20-20 vision were required to locate the position of a vertical bar marker that was shown in 1 of 10 possible locations. RT and information transmission measures were compared in conditions that varied (1) the degradation of the background luminance of the stimulus, and (2) the narrowing of the stimulus field. Degrading the luminance influenced performance to the same extent regardless of the speed constraints, whereas the effects of narrowing of the stimulus field were reduced as the speed constraints increased. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.