The time it takes to stratify two phenomenal surfaces

The time the perceptual system takes to generate two overlapping phenomenal surfaces is estimated to be about 60 ms by a recognition task and 200 - 250 ms by a primed matching task. Here, a reaction-time task was used to test these estimates. It is plausible that when two overlapping phenomenal surfaces appear abruptly in the visual field the perceptual system sends a signal to the response system when the localisation of the parts of these surfaces begins. The perceptual system should send a subsequent signal when the phenomenal overlapping of the surfaces is achieved. The reaction times to these signals were estimated in two experiments. The difference between these estimates confirms the time estimate provided by the primed matching task.