Evidence against signal enhancement as a mechanism of direct selection by color

Abstract

Two of the possible mechanisms that have been put forward to explain precuing effects are signal enhancement and uncertainty reduction. Signal enhancement leads to processing advantages for valid information because the signal at the known input channel is enhanced, whereas uncertainty reduction allows observers to ignore confusing distractor items in a display. Both mechanisms have been reported to be involved in location precuing, but it is still unclear which of these two mechanisms is responsible for color cuing effects. Two experiments are reported in which expectancy for a certain color in a single-item display was created. Targets were presented briefly and were masked. If color cues produce signal enhancement, then a color cuing effect should result. If color cues only allow uncertainty reduction, however, there should be no color cuing effect because there are no distractors in single-item displays. The results of both experiments favor uncertainty reduction as the mechanism behind color cuing, because no signs of signal enhancement-based cuing effects were observed.

Electrophysiological correlates of direct selection by color

“…It seems, then, that these components only reflect processes taking place after color selection but do not mirror the color selection process itself. Behavioral data have shown that direct selection of color only occurs when distractor items are presented (Vierck & Miller, 2007). This result suggests that advance color information enables the processing system to discriminate more easily between the target and distractor items.…”

“…First, behavioral studies indicate that direct selection by color only takes place when more than one item is presented. It seems that selection by color does not enhance the signal of the colored item itself, but rather allows discarding distractor items more efficiently (Vierck & Miller, 2007). Thus, it seems likely that effects of color selection might have been small or absent in this study because the displays included no distractors.…”

The role of spatial and nonspatial information in visual selection.

“…Even though color information was not necessary for the task, valid cues resulted in better performance and invalid cues in worst performance relative to the neutral condition. Even though, on the face of it, this study appears to provide evidence for visual selection on the basis of color, recent evidence shows that color cuing in such Rapid Serial Visual Presentation experiments may have to do with uncertainty reduction rather than visual selection (see Vierck & Miller, 2007).…”

Effect of time pressure and target uncertainty on human operator performance and workload for autonomous unmanned aerial system

“…The identification of targets is particularly difficult due to the low fidelity and restricted visual angle available to UAS operators, and this is made even more complicated when the target lies amidst an array of distracting information, causing uncertainty for the operators. Uncertainty describes the condition an observer experiences when viewing an image which contains confusing distracter items (Vierck and Miller, 2007). When there is a high level of uncertainty in the decision making process, humans will actively search out ways to reduce that uncertainty by gathering more information, and when all else fails, simply suppress the uncertainty and take action (Lipshitz, 1997).…”