Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance
-
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform · Aug 2016
Configural learning in contextual cuing of visual search.
Two experiments were conducted to explore the role of configural representations in contextual cuing of visual search. Repeating patterns of distractors (contexts) were trained incidentally as predictive of the target location. ⋯ Computational simulations with an elemental associative learning model of contextual cuing demonstrated that purely elemental representations could not account for the results. However, a configural model of associative learning was able to simulate the ordinal pattern of data. (PsycINFO Database Record
-
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform · Aug 2016
All set, indeed! N2pc components reveal simultaneous attentional control settings for multiple target colors.
To study whether top-down attentional control processes can be set simultaneously for different visual features, we employed a spatial cueing procedure to measure behavioral and electrophysiological markers of task-set contingent attentional capture during search for targets defined by 1 or 2 possible colors (one-color and two-color tasks). Search arrays were preceded by spatially nonpredictive color singleton cues. ⋯ When search displays contained 6 items in 6 different colors, so that participants had to adopt a fully feature-specific task set, the N2pc to distractor-color cues was eliminated in both tasks, indicating that nonmatching items were now successfully excluded from attentional processing. These results demonstrate that when observers adopt a feature-specific search mode, attentional task sets can be configured flexibly for multiple features within the same dimension, resulting in the rapid allocation of attention to task-set matching objects only. (PsycINFO Database Record
-
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform · Aug 2016
The problem of latent attentional capture: Easy visual search conceals capture by task-irrelevant abrupt onsets.
Researchers are sharply divided regarding whether irrelevant abrupt onsets capture spatial attention. Numerous studies report that they do and a roughly equal number report that they do not. This puzzle has inspired numerous attempts at reconciliation, none gaining general acceptance. ⋯ Critically, this effect occurs even when search difficulty varies randomly across trials, preventing any strategic adjustments of the attentional set that could modulate probability of capture by the onset cue. The authors argue that easy visual search provides an insensitive test for stimulus-driven capture by abrupt onsets: even though onsets truly capture attention, the effects of capture can be latent. This observation helps to explain previous failures to find capture by onsets, nearly all of which used an easy visual search. (PsycINFO Database Record