Complexity effects on reaction-time measures of visual persistence: evidence for peripheral and central contributions

Two experiments are presented that attempt to determine the effect of operationally defined stimulus complexity on visual persistence. Two common measures of complexity are employed in both experiments. In Experiment 1, visual persistence for high-contrast, solid black figures increases with increasing target duration and with decreasing complexity. In Experiment 2, which uses outline figures of the same sizes and shapes as in the first experiment, visual persistence increases both with increasing target duration and with increasing complexity. It is proposed that the very different results from the two experiments may reflect the separate functioning of a visible, sensory persistence and a higher order, schematic persistence. The reaction-time (RT) measure of persistence that was employed may be sensitive to either of these persistences, depending upon stimulus and task conditions. Implications are suggested for (a) the importance of sensory processes in some manipulations of target complexity and (b) the possible role of peripheral and central factors in visual persistence.