MEMORY PSYCHOPHYSICS FOR VISUAL SIZE ESTI MATION OF GEOMETRIC PATTERNS

In previous studies (e.g., Kerst and Howard, 1978) it has been shown t hat remembered sizes were related to actual sizes by a more compressiv e power function than they were to perceived sizes. These findings hav e been accounted for by the re-perceptual hypothesis. Two experiments were conducted to test this hypothesis for the size estimation with a geometric stimulus. Thirty undergraduate students participated in each experiment. The effects of the number of dimensions of perceived geom etric objects (Experiment 1) and those of stimulus range (Experiment 2 ) on remembering: magnitude were investigated. The major findings from Experiments 1 and 2 were as follows; (1) the power exponents were sig nificantly smaller in the memory conditions than in the perceptual con ditions, and (2) the results with 1 dimensional objects (lines, Experi ment 1) and with 2 dimensional objects in the larger stimulus range (s quares, Experiment 2) were consistent with the re-perceptual hypothesi s. Those results were discussed in the relation to the stimulus comple xity.