Beyond what meets the Eye: The effect of line number, distance between the lines and line arrangement on Redundancy Masking

Abstract

Recent findings have shown that redundancy masking can often result in the perception of fewer stimuli than the number that was presented. The aim of the current study is to determine if the number of lines, the distance between the lines, and different arrangements of colour and line length can affect the strength of redundancy masking. We hypothesised that redundancy masking will increase with an increased number of lines, decrease with increased line distance and be strongest in a uniform line arrangement, followed by the outer different, inner different and the alternating arrangements. To explore this, we conducted a two-part experiment with either short and long lines, or red and green lines. Twenty-four participants were instructed to report the number of perceived lines. Then they were given the option to alter either the length or the colours of their answer bars. The results revealed a corresponding increase in the frequency of underestimation as the number of lines increased. Furthermore, the distance between the lines, as tested in both the length and colour experiments did not have a significant impact. As expected, the uniform arrangement demonstrated the strongest effect in both experiments, with the greatest disparity observed in the colour experiment being between the uniform and alternating arrangements. Surprisingly, in the length experiment, the only significant comparisons were found between the uniform and inner/outer different arrangements. We conclude that the redundancy masking effect is influenced by an increased number of lines and a uniform arrangement. However, the distance between the lines may require several adjustments. Keywords: redundancy masking, distance between the lines, line arrangements, number of lines.