Abstract
7-letter nonsense targets with one letter (F or N) reversed, were tachistoscopically exposed by an ascending method of limits. The reversals appeared in the first, or fourth, or seventh array position. Control arrays had all printwise letters. Fifteen Ss were tested in each of these conditions. The threshold of the normally oriented letters was significantly elevated only when the reversed F was at the beginning or middle of an array. In these instances, and only in these, the number of letters reported per exposure was significantly lower in response to the experimental than control targets. These differences might have occurred because Ss used more than twice as many atypical (right-to-left) scanning strategies in reply to these experimental than control arrays. The results of this experiment do not support the ideas, derived from the hypothesis theory of perception, which Postman, et al. (1951) used to explain prior findings.