The influence of regularities on temporal order judgments.

Abstract

Regularities in our visual environment help us to guide our attention. Based on these regularities we create expectations, which we attend to more than to non-expected stimuli. It has also been claimed that processing speed is faster for attended stimuli. Therefor it could be that regularities influence the processing speed of stimuli around us. The aim of this study was to create regularities in a way that would guide attention towards specific stimuli based on expectation. We expected that the expected stimuli would be processed faster. We used a temporal order judgment task to measure processing speed, expecting that participants would process the stimuli that matched their expectations faster and therefor choose that stimulus when asked which was presented first. However the results showed that there was no significant effect on peoples temporal order judgment based on the regularities we created. Therefore the results of this study do not show an influence of the created regularities on the processing speed of the participants. We have to conclude that the regularities we created did not guide participants’ attention and with that did not enhance their processing speed. Therefor it seems that regularities do not enhance our processing speed in all situations.