Abstract
In the present study, we investigated whether judging the presence of multiple features within an object would be superior to judging the presence of only one feature. Feature discriminability and the number of features to discriminate within an object were varied. Specific features were judged as present or absent. Results showed that judging the presence of two or three features was faster than judging the presence of the less discriminable of these two or three features alone (multiple-feature benefits). These findings suggest that relevant features within an object activate (prime) a decision or response in a parallel, asynchronous fashion based on discriminability (Miller, 1982a). The ability of a response priming model, a response mapping model, and a template model to account for multiple feature benefits is discussed.
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Experiments land 2 of this research were supported by Public Health Service Research Career Program Award K6-MH-22014 to the second author and by United States Public Health Service Research Grant MH-01 206 also to the second author.
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Fournier, L.R., Eriksen, C.W. & Bowd, C. Multiple-feature discrimination faster than single feature discrimination within the same object?. Perception & Psychophysics 60, 1384–1405 (1998). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03208000
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03208000