ABSTRACT
This paper reinterprets several phenomena of visual information processing from the perspective of finite temporal resolution in vision. At the outset, it is argued that stimulus information both accumulates and decays gradually over time. From this contention, the visual icon is reinterpreted to be nothing more than the epiphenomenal manifestation of decaying sensory information in higher cortical centers, and not a separate precognitive information storage register. The nature of visual masking is then discussed, and it is concluded that there is no convincing evidence for the existence of erasure or interruption processes in vision. There is, however, evidence for a “cognitive” masking effect that reflects the limited-capacity nature and finite temporal resolution of the visual processing system.
