A u-shaped backward masking function in vision: A partial replication of the Weisstein and Haber study with two ring sizes

Abstract

A partial replication of the visual masking study by Weisstein & Haber (1965) was performed incorporating the additional variable of masking ring size in order to investigate the discrepancy between findings of that study and the study by Eriksen & Collins (1964). Errors in discriminating the capital letters 0 and D in a forced-choice design were measured with 4 Ss when the exposure of either letter was accompanied or followed by either a masking ring of a stroke width equal to that of the letter or five times as large as the stroke width of the letter. The delays between the offset of the letter and the onset of the masking ring were concurrent, 0, 20, 40, 60, and 80 msec. Recognition was a u-shaped function of the delay for both ring sizes; however, the number of errors for the two ring sizes differed significantly, with the smaller ring having more overall errors. Therefore, the results approximated those of Weisstein & Haber, and indicated that masking ring size is an important variable in visual masking studies, although this variable alone did not produce the discrepancy that is found between Weisstein & Haber and Eriksen & Collins.