Selection of new objects by onset capture and visual marking

Abstract

Visual search is easier after looking at some distractors in advance because previewed distractors are excluded from the search (preview benefit). A dominant explanation for preview benefit is that it occurs because of the inhibition of old objects (visual marking). However, another view claims that preview benefit simply reflects automatic attentional orienting to new objects (onset capture). To address the question of whether visual marking plays any role in addition to onset capture, we compared the search performance for a target that always appeared as a new item ("marking" condition) with the performance for a target that appeared equally as a new or old item ("capture" condition). When items were presented at random positions in an invisible matrix, the slope in the "marking" condition was shallower than that in the "capture" condition, favoring the involvement of visual marking (Experiments 1 and 2). In contrast, no difference in slope was found among the search conditions regardless of changes in old items when items were arranged around the circumference of a circle (Experiment 3). These findings suggest that the contribution of visual marking depends on the configuration of search items; with complex displays, prioritizing selection for new objects is more effective if coupled with de-prioritizing de-selection for old objects.

A Drastic Change in Background Luminance or Motion Degrades the Preview Benefit

“…This is consistent with a recent demonstration in which preview benefit depends on the configuration of search items on a blank background, being maximal in a circular array but compromised in a matrix such as the one we used, possibly due to the relationship between stimulus configuration and one’s attentional window size (Osugi et al, 2016). Dependence of onset capture on attentional window size has been demonstrated in previous studies (Yantis and Johnson, 1990; Theeuwes, 1994; Belopolsky and Theeuwes, 2010), some of which have suggested a circular array as an ideal configuration for covering all items within the window.…”

“…For example, preview benefit can be simultaneously given to up to around 15 new items when searching for a single target (Theeuwes et al, 1998), and six or seven new items can be prioritized when all new items have to be pointed at (e.g., Watson and Kunar, 2012). The observed capacity is much greater than the estimated capacity for onset capture, which is approximately four items (Yantis and Johnson, 1990; Yantis and Jones, 1991); this great capacity is viewed as supporting evidence for the contribution of visual marking in addition to that of onset capture (Osugi et al, 2016). Furthermore, the preview benefit is abolished when old items suddenly alter their shapes during the preview period (Watson and Humphreys, 1997, 2002).…”

Reward Does Not Modulate the Preview Benefit in Visual Search

“…The current study investigated whether reward history can influence the preview benefit effect. We used a preview search procedure based on that of Osugi, Hayashi, & Murakami (2016): on each trial participants were required to respond to a target in a search display, but on some trials (termed preview trials) this was preceded by a preview display containing placeholders that marked the locations of half of the items that would appear in the subsequent search display. On these preview trials, the target in the search display was equally likely to appear at a location where one of the previewed placeholders had appeared (old-target-location condition) or in a location that had been empty in the preview display 6 THE EFFECT OF REWARD ON PREVIEW BENEFIT (new-target-location condition).…”

Inhibition of return modulates the flash-lag effect

“…It is well known that a transient event automatically draws attention to the location where the event has just occurred; this type of attention, often termed exogenous attention, has been extensively studied (for a review, see Carrasco, 2011;Klein, 2005;Mulckhuyse & Theeuwes, 2010). The visual system prioritizes and facilitates processing at the location where something new is occurring, resulting in a faster reaction time (RT) to the onset of the stimulus that occurs there (e.g., Osugi, Hayashi, & Murakami, 2016;Yantis & Jonides, 1984). However, such facilitation does not persist for an extended period.…”