Recognizing and localizing features in brief picture presentations

In two experiments, subjects saw a series of brief picture flashes, each followed by a 10-sec presentation of a small picture section. In Experiment 1, subjects were required to decide if the section had been part of the 100-msec picture presentation. Experiment 2 had 100-msec and 500-msec presentations, and the task was to indicate the location of the section in the picture. Both recognition and localization accuracy depended upon the rated informativeness of the probed section and the section's location with respect to point of focus. Performance on the recognition task was superior to that on the localization task, suggesting different rates of acquisition of identity and location information. The results were interpreted in terms of a model of picture perception based upon two kinds of processing: identification of individual objects and a holistic characterization of the scene. The results also have implications regarding the use of information in the guidance of initial eye fixations.