Recognition of concrete and abstract pictures as a function of poststimulus interval

This study examined picture recognition of concrete common objects and abstract random shapes under two presentation conditions: The durations of the unfilled intervals (off-time duration) that followed the presentation of the pictures were varied either randomly or in blocks. The major findings were: recognition of the concrete pictures was better than recognition of random shapes, the off-time duration did not influence recognition of either type of picture under the random presentation condition, and under the block presentation condition, recognition of the concrete pictures increased as a function of off-time duration, whereas the effect of off-time duration was not found for the abstract shapes. The results were interpreted as suggesting that a longer off-time duration is necessary for abstract shapes so that stimulus differentiation, verbal encoding, visual analogizing, and rehearsing may be utilized in processing.