PERCEPTUAL AND COGNITIVE-FACTORS GOVERNING PERFORMANCE IN COMPARATIVEARRIVAL-TIME JUDGMENTS

Four experiments were conducted to investigate factor, affecting relat ive arrival-time judgments in the transverse plane. Across experiments . results indicated an overreliance on relative distance information. The levels of relative velocity and distance used in the arrival-time task were proved discriminable, and performance in both relative veloc ity and distance judgments predicted performance in the relative arriv al-time task. Despite the distance bias, an attempt to integrate relat ive velocity and distance information was also evidenced. The distance bias appears to have resulted from resource limitations on the concur rent processing of relative velocity and distance information, causing relative velocity information to become resource limited. The final e xperiment assessed the stability of performance in each of the tasks o ver time and provided evidence of individual differences in the abilit y to coordinate information from multiple sources.