Global attributes in visual word recognition : part 1: length perception of letter strings

Part of a general research programme on visual word recognition is concerned with stimulus attributes that may function as cues. The topic here was perception of word length as such. Letter strings were tachistoscopically presented. Independent variables were stimulus length and eccentricity of presentation. Seven subjects reported how many letters they had seen. Correct scores decrease with increasing length. From the fovea outward correct scores decrease, but, surprisingly, they reach a plateau for |?|>2°. The length is systematically underestimated: the average reported length is approx 85% of stimulus length. Evidence is supplied that perceived length is a linear function of string length in mm.