1. an instrument that displays visual stimuli for very brief, precisely timed intervals, used in psychological research and reading studies
Usage: psychology; research equipment

Examples

• The researcher used a tachistoscope to measure how quickly participants could recognize words.
• Early reading studies relied on tachistoscopes to control exposure time to text.
• The tachistoscope flashed images for just 50 milliseconds during the experiment.
• Psychologists use tachistoscopes to study visual perception and attention.
• The tachistoscope helped researchers understand how the brain processes visual information.
• Students in the psychology lab learned to operate the tachistoscope for their perception study.