Perceptual repetition blindness effects.

Abstract

Repetition blindness (RB) may reveal a new limitation on human perceptual processing. Recently, however, researchers have attributed RB to postperceptual processes. The standard rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm used in most RB studies is open to such objections. The "single-frame" paradigm introduced by J. C. Johnston and B. L. Hale (1984) allowed investigation of RB with minimal memory demands. Participants made a judgment about whether 1 masked target word was the same or different than a posttarget probe. Confidence ratings permitted use of signal detection methods. In the critical condition for RB, a precue of the posttarget word was provided prior to the target stimulus so that the required judgment amounted to whether the target did or did not repeat the precue word. In control treatments, the precue was an unrelated word or a dummy. Results showed that perceptual sensitivity was significantly reduced in the RB condition relative to baseline control conditions. The data showed that RB can be obtained under conditions in which memory problems are minimal and perceptual sensitivity is assessed independently of biases. RB therefore can be a perceptual phenomenon.

Repetition blindness and repetition priming: Effects of featural differences between targets and distractors on RSVP dual-target search

“…In addition, it has been demonstrated that repetition blindness occurs when memory demands are reduced (Chun, 1997;Dux & Marois, 2007;Luo & Caramazza, 1995 and even when no recall is required (Hochhaus & Johnston, 1996;Johnston et al, 2002). Thus, although retrieval failure contributes to some effects of repetition seen in RSVP streams, it is not responsible for all of them.…”

When Words Collide: Facilitation and Interference in the Report of Repeated Words From Rapidly Presented Lists.

“…When the primes are presented for a relatively long interval, and subjects are encouraged to attend to them, subjects tend to prefer the foil probe if the target is repetition primed. Thus, target identification accuracy is reduced under repetition priming, an impairment that parallels repetition blindness in RSVP lists (see also Hochhaus & Johnston, 1996). In the ROUSE model, one accounts for that deficit by assuming that subjects discount evidence that potentially has been generated by an irrelevant source (i.e., evidence that could have arisen from the prime event is discounted).…”

“…Thus, tokenization of the second presentation of a repeated word fails, and it cannot be reported. In the type-token account of repetition blindness, then, the impaired report of a repeated item is attributed to a failure of encoding or perception that occurs at the moment a repeated word is presented in an RSVP list (see also Hochhaus & Johnston, 1996;Johnston, Hochhaus, & Ruthruff, 2002). …”

Signal detection analyses of repetition blindness.

“…According to either of these 'accounts, Park and Kanwisher's d' measure of RB would constitute not a failure to perceive repeated items, but rather a failure to remember or correctly categorize them. Hochhaus and Johnston (1996) report a series of experiments designed to get around these difficulties. They used the "single-frame" paradigm (Johnston & Hale, 1984) to measure RB, in which memory load is low because participants make only a single judgment: whether a masked target word is the same as or different from a posttarget probe word.…”

“…detection of single words presented near threshold (Hochhaus & Johnston, 1996;Humphreys, Besner, & Quinlan, 1988;Marohn & Hochhaus, 1988), misspelling detection (MacKay, 1969), and judgments of the number of letters that appear in a simultaneous spatial array (Mozer, 1989). Kanwisher (1987Kanwisher ( , 1991 argued that repetition blindness is primarily of interest because it reveals an important functional dissociation between two different visual processes.…”