The role of redundancy in the discrimination of visual forms.

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Abstract
Four experiments were performed to determine the effect of 2 types and 5 levels of redundancy on S''s ability to recognize visual patterns under 2 conditions of visual noise. When background noise was present redundancy was found to facilitate rapid discrimination; when stimulus noise was absent an increase in redundancy was associated with an increase in recognition times. The longer times in the noise-free case appeared to be attributable primarily to the difficulty of discriminating smaller details in the figures which were more redundant. No differences in sorting times were found for figures with 2 different types of redundancy presented in the noise-free situation. Lack of differences was interpreted as due, in part, to the nonutilization of redundant features of a stimulus by S when external noise was absent. It was suggested that in certain situations there may exist a balance of effects between the beneficial characteristics of various types of redundancy and the detrimental features that arise when redundancy is introduced in too great amounts or in an ineffective way. Implications of the present approach for an interpretation of 2 traditional Gestalt figural concepts were mentioned.

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