Positional Differences in Performance on Members of Confusable and Nonconfusable Letter Pairs

A parafoveally presented letter is more accurately identified when flanked by a letter to its foveal side than when flanked by one to its peripheral side, but only if the two letters are nonconfusable. With confusable letters there is no such relative position effect. Four experiments indicated that the basis for this confusability-asymmetry interaction is not criterion or response bias, but rather that it occurs earlier in visual processing. In Experiment 1 the interaction was found when only one pair member was reported, thus eliminating response bias requiring the report of both letters as the source of the effect. In Experiment 2 the data were subjected to signal detection analysis, and the interaction persisted. In Experiment 3 pair members were presented simultaneously or in rapid sequence, and the interaction was found only with simultaneous presentations. In Experiment 4 letters were used with upper- and lowercase counterparts that were quite different in shape. Uppercase letters that were most and least confusable for each subject were paired for presentation in their upper case form or in mixed-case form. The interaction occurred only with upper-case pairs.