Abstract
SS JUDGED THE SAMENESS OF PAIRS OF MATRICES, EACH HAVING SEVERAL CELLS BLACKENED AT RANDOM. 1 GROUP, SIMILARITY SEARCH, CLASSIFIED MATRIX PAIRS AS "SAME" IF THEY HAD EVEN 1 PAIR OF BLACKENED CELLS IN CORRESPONDING LOCATIONS. A 2ND GROUP, IDENTITY SEARCH, CLASSIFIED PAIRS AS "SAME" THAT WERE IDENTICAL WITH RESPECT TO ALL BLACKENED CELL LOCATIONS. DECISION TIMES OF THE SIMILARITY-SEARCH GROUP WERE MUCH LONGER THAN THOSE OF THE IDENTITY-SEARCH GROUP. WHILE THE PERFORMANCE OF THE SIMILARITY-SEARCH SS INDICATED THAT THEY WERE ENGAGED IN SERIAL PROCESSING OF THE STIMULUS ARRAY, THAT OF THE IDENTITY-SEARCH SS SOMETIMES APPROXIMATED GESTALT PROCESSING.