Longer exposures barely increase apprehension of nonsense material and objects, but materially increase perception of quickly assimilable sense-material such as poetry¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 1910 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? With a 6-sec exposure the average number of objects named was 6.03, only slightly above the 4-to-5 objects named in a 0.08-sec exposure. → Whipple 1910 q2 i? Nearly 12 words of poetry were read in 3 sec, against the 4-to-6 limit in ordinary tachistoscopy, due to grouping into meaningful units. → Whipple 1910 (2)

Evidence¶

Whipple 1910¶

Whipple, G. M. (1910). The effect of practise upon the range of visual attention and of visual apprehension. The Journal of Educational Psychology. https://books.google.com/books?q=Whipple+effect+of+practise+range+of+visual+attention+apprehension

q2 · i? · causal · r1

Apprehension test in which collocations of 10 objects were exposed without instrumental aid for 6 sec to three adult observers; the article reports the very small increase compared with the 0.08-sec range-of-attention tests.

"with an exposure of 6 sec, the average number of objects named was 6.03, while, with an exposure only 1-75 as long, between 4 and 5 objects could be named."

Whipple 1910 (2)¶

Whipple, G. M. (1910). The effect of practise upon the range of visual attention and of visual apprehension. The Journal of Educational Psychology. https://books.google.com/books?q=Whipple+effect+of+practise+range+of+visual+attention+apprehension

q2 · i? · causal · r1

In the same apprehension tests, four-line stanzas of poetry were exposed for 3 sec; the article attributes the materially increased range for this sense-material to grouping and combination into meaningful units.

"nearly 12 words were read in poetry as against the 4 to 6 limit in ordinary tachistoscopy."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Visual Processing — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• Systematic practise gives little warrant for markedly improving adults' quick visual perception; the slight poetry gain is attributed to familiarity with the poem — related
• The average range of visual attention for isolated letters lies between 4 and 5 letters (4.82), with only slight individual differences — related
• Practise has a very slight effect on the range of attention, explicable by habituation and grouping tricks rather than any expansion of the range itself — related