An attempt was made to examine the development of the ability to identify stimuli presented to peripheral vision in several different tasks. Five-and 8-year-old children and college adults saw, for ·20 msec, either a single figure at 1 0 , 2 0 , 4 0 , or 6 0 of visual angle from the fovea (singleform condition) or an off-foveal figure with an additional figure at the fovea (double-form condition). In the double-form conditions, the subjects were required to identify either the peripheral figure only (double-form presentation) or both figures (double-form report). The main effects of Age, Distance, and Form Condition were significant. Accuracy improved with increasing age and with decreasing distance. The Form Condition effect reflected lower accuracy in the two double-form conditions than in the single-form condition. Interestingly, there was no difference between the two double-form conditions, suggesting that the mere presence of a foveal stimulus, with instructions to ignore it, produces as much decrement in peripheral performance as when subjects are told to fully process and report the foveal stimulus. Also, there was no interaction .between Form Condition and Distance, suggesting that the label "tunnel vision" may be misleading, since the presence of the foveal stimulus seems to have an equal effect on all peripheral locations and does not really "restrict" the size of the effective visual field.Visual events are perceived not only in the area of central, or foveal, vision, but in the area of peripheral vision as well. Some of these peripherally occurring events may be detected, fully processed, and identified by the observer without the necessity of eye movements. Other peripheral events may be detected and perhaps partially processed, but not completely identified. In these latter cases, the observer may move his eyes in order to place the The authors wish to acknowledge the valuable assistance of the people involved in this research. We are grateful to Richard Hansen and the teachers at Eastridge Elementary School for their cooperation in providing children. Deborah Porter and Celeste Newman deserve special thanks for their assistance in data collection; Frank Slaymaker and Lynne Olsho provided invaluable suggestions and help in data analysis.
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