Rapid Conceptual Identification of Sequentially Presented Pictures

When a sequence of pictures is presented at the rapid rate of 113 msec/picture, a viewer can detect a verbally specified target more than 60% of the time. In the present experiment sequences of pictures were presented at rates of 258, 172, and 114 msec/picture. A target was specified by name, by superordinate category, or by "negative" category (e.g., "the picture that is not of food"). Although the probability of detection decreased as cue specificity decreased, even in the most difficult condition (negative category cue at 114 msec/picture) 35% of the targets were detected. When the scores from the three detection tasks were compared with a control group's immediate recognition memory for the targets, immediate recognition memory was invariably lower than detection. The results are con- sistent with the hypothesis that rapidly presented pictures may be momentarily understood at the time of viewing and then quickly forgotten.