Single-letter recognition accuracy benefits and position information

Abstract

Beneficial effects of location cuing in single-letter recognition tasks have been found in a number of studies. Van der Heijden, Neerincx, and Wolters (1989) have argued that such identity benefits can be expressed as a fraction of the room for improvement in position information. Their model suggests that an attentional process may, through the addition of location information, enhance identification performance. For this model to be correct, however, two conditions must be met: (1) position information of the target letters has to be missing in a proportion of the trials, and (2) identity benefits have to be smaller than the room for improvement in position information. Two experiments are reported in which position and identity information of single target letters are determined under identical conditions. The outcomes of both experiments are consistent with the conditions suggested by the model.