Processing redundant information.
Irving Biederman, Stephen F. Checkosky · Journal of Experimental Psychology · 1970
When stimuli differed on two dimensions (size and brightness), either of which could furnish sufficient information for a correct response, reaction times were faster than when stimuli differed on only one dimension. This result holds true even when individual differences in dimension preferences are taken into account. A model of parallel processing of the different dimensions is proposed and extended to Posner's taxonomy of information-processing tasks. The model emphasizes 6"s ability to initiate a successive processing stage as soon as sufficient information for a correct response has been gathered. This ability enables.? to capitalize on the variance of the times of the component processes by which the values of the different dimensions arc determined. Docs an excess of relevant information facilitate or retard the speed of pattern per-ception? This question of the effects of redundant, relevant stimulus information has been the subject of some speculation (Gar-ner, 1962), but direct experimental study has been lacking. The present investigation explored this issue in the context of the handling of multidimensional visual informa-tion in a speeded recognition task. The ex-perimental strategy was to compare reaction times (RTs) from a task where the stimuli differed on only one dimension with a task where the stimuli differed on two dimensions (of equal discriminability), either one of which could furnish sufficient information for correct recognition. The effects of redundant, relevant infor-mation have important implications for the theoretical issue of whether the component processes for determining the values of the different dimensions proceed in serial or parallel fashion (Smith, 1968). However, to generate predictions from parallel or se-quential models of the component processes, 1A preliminary version of this study was pre-sented by Biederman & Sterns (1967). This manuscript has benefited from conversations with