Dimension-based Attention in Pop-out Search

ABSTRACT Visual objects that differ from distracting objects in a single salient attribute can be discerned in a seemingly effortless, automatic, fashion. Phenomenally, they seem to pop out of the background (popout effect). However, recent work, reviewed in this article, has provided evidence that pop-out is modulated by dimension-based attentional weighting processes: Pop-out is based on dimension-specific feature contrast/saliency signals. The computation of these signals, and/or their integration by superordinate mechanisms, may be primed, in bottom-up manner by the repeated presentation of targets defined within the same dimension, and top-down modulated based on knowledge of the upcoming target-defining dimension. Saliency signals are computed in parallel in multiple dimensions, and their integration into a super-ordinate (overall) saliency representation, that guides the allocation of focal attention, is spatially specific and subject to the same modulatory effects mentioned earlier.

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