Effect of blank time on picture recognition

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of blank time between picture presentations on retention of two types of picture information: specific detail information and general visual information. A series of slides of "everyday" scenes was presented, and the blank time between slide presentations was varied. After presentation of the series of slides, memory for specific details and general visual information was probed using a forced-choice testing procedure. Although previous research failed to find blank-time effects using similar stimuli, it was thought that by keeping both slide presentation times and blank times constant within each experimental block, an effect of blank time might be found. The results indicated that retention of both specific details and general visual information was aided by the extra rehearsal opportunity afforded by longer blank times; there was no interaction between the type of information probed and the duration of blank time. It is suggested that because the blank-time variable affected retention of specific detail and general visual information equally, the two types of information may be held by a common coding system.