The Use of Iambic Pentameter in the

were asked to make decisions about experimental stimuli, displayed on a computer
monitor, in which a central pushbutton was ambiguous as to how it could be grouped (see
Figure 19A). As shown in Figure 19A, participants could group the central pushbutton
with one side of pushbuttons by a global grouping principle (in this experiment, color
similarity), or with the opposing side of pushbuttons by a local grouping principle (in this
experiment, connectedness). Color similarity was considered to be more global than
connectedness because this grouping principle was the largest scale feature within these
stimuli. Unambiguous control stimuli, which had only one correct grouping solution,
were also presented to make certain that participants were actually grouping the central
pushbutton. Experimental stimuli were shown for 200 and 2000ms. Responses and
reaction times were recorded.
Figure 19. Pilot stimulus 1 and results
A
Note. Stimulus and results by Schulz and Sanocki (2002) (a) Ambiguous stimulus in first pilot experiment. Central
pushbutton groups with pushbuttons on left by global color similarity and with pushbuttons on right by local
connectedness. (b) Results from first pilot experiment. Graph shows number of participants who grouped
predominantly by color similarity, connectedness, or mixed properties by exposure duration.
It was hypothesized that at short stimulus durations, participants would group
stimuli predominantly by color similarity, the more global scene detail. At long stimulus
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B