THE CONTRIBUTION OF VISUAL PERSISTENCE TO THE PERCEIVED DURATION OF BRIEF TARGETS

The role of sensory persistence was studied [in humans] on tasks of perceived duration employing very brief visual stimuli. Using a standard temporal judgment task, the 1st experiment [exp] replicated the size effect and empty-filled illusion reported by previous investigators. Entirely comparable results were found with a probe-matching task, which theoretically assesses the degree of persistence exhibited by a stimulus. The 2nd examined the effect of target luminance on perceived duration. Consistent with a sensory persistence interpretation, judgments of duration increased with increasing luminance. The results from the 2 experiments were discussed in terms of varying degrees of retinal persistence produced by different stimuli. This view was contrasted with currently dominant interpretations that postulate changes in perceived duration to reflect different information-processing requirements across stimulus conditions.