Mnemonic Organization as a Determinant of Error-Gradients in Visual Pattern Perception

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Abstract
This paper presents evidence that the accuracy of tachistoscopic perception for elements arranged in a spatial pattern is determined primarily by the difficulty of organizing the pattern for storage in memory, rather than by the sensory capacity of the visual system for discriminating the individual elements. Four lines of evidence are followed. The first shows that the distribution of errors among the elements of a serial-learning task and the pattern-perception task are affected similarly by manipulation of the same given variable. The second reveals parallels between the element-position functions of errors in serial learning and in pattern perception for different independent sets of data. The third line of evidence shows that errors in tachistoscopic perception are independent of the retinal area stimulated by individual elements. The final area of evidence is the demonstration of a close similarity for the serial learning and the perceptual tasks of the functions relating errors per element and ranks of the elements in accuracy of performance for individual Ss.

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