Feature head-start: Conjunction search following progressive feature disclosure

When a colour/orientation conjunction search display is immediately preceded by a display that shows either the colour or the orientation of each upcoming search item, search is faster after colour-preview than after orientation-preview. One explanation for this feature asymmetry is that colour has priority access to attentional selection relative to features such as orientation and size. In support of this hypothesis, we show that this asymmetry persists even after colour and orientation feature search performance is equated. However, this notion was ruled out by our subsequent experiments in which the target was defined by conjunction of colour and size; colour-preview was less helpful than size-preview (even though colour-feature search was faster than size-feature search, for these feature values). A final set of experiments tested size-preview vs. orientation-preview for size/orientation conjunction search, using stimuli for which orientation-feature search was easier than size-feature search. Size-preview produced much faster search than orientation-preview, demonstrating again that ease of feature search does not predict effects of a feature-preview. Overall, size produced the most facilitation when presented as a feature-preview (for both colour/size and size/orientation conjunctions), followed by colour (for colour/orientation conjunction but not for colour/size conjunction) and then orientation (which never facilitated search). Whilst each feature-preview may potentially facilitate search, the transition from feature-preview display to search display could disrupt search processes, because of luminance and/or colour changes. We see evidence for some sort of disruption when the feature-preview slows search. An explanation of this set of results must focus on both facilitation and disruption: these effects are not mutually exclusive, and neither suffices alone, since performance after feature-preview can be significantly better or significantly worse than conjunction baseline.

[1]  N. Suga,et al.  Criticisms of 'Specific long-term memory traces in primary auditory cortex' , 2004, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[2]  J Theeuwes,et al.  Visual marking beside the mark: Prioritizing selection by abrupt onsets , 2001, Perception & psychophysics.

[3]  G. Humphreys,et al.  No previews are good news: Using preview search to probe categorical grouping for orientation , 2007, Vision Research.

[4]  R. Abrams,et al.  Motion Onset Captures Attention , 2003, Psychological science.

[5]  Zhaoping Li.  A saliency map in primary visual cortex , 2002, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[6]  Howard E Egeth,et al.  Biased competition and visual search: the role of luminance and size contrast , 2007, Psychological research.

[7]  Derrick G. Watson,et al.  Visual marking: Evidence for inhibition using a probe-dot detection paradigm , 2000, Perception & psychophysics.

[8]  J. Palmer.  Attention in Visual Search: Distinguishing Four Causes of a Set-Size Effect , 1995 .

[9]  W. Singer,et al.  Conjunctions of colour, luminance and orientation: the role of colour and luminance contrast on saliency and proximity grouping in texture segregation. , 2000, Spatial vision.

[10]  D. Bouwhuis,et al.  Attention and performance X : control of language processes , 1986 .

[11]  Glyn W. Humphreys,et al.  Color-based grouping and inhibition in visual search: Evidence from a probe detection analysis of preview search , 2005, Perception & psychophysics.

[12]  Edward K. Vogel,et al.  The capacity of visual working memory for features and conjunctions , 1997, Nature.

[13]  Elizabeth S. Olds,et al.  Does Previewing One Stimulus Feature Help Conjunction Search? , 2004, Perception.

[14]  Raymond Klein,et al.  Inhibitory tagging system facilitates visual search , 1988, Nature.

[15]  Frank E. Ritter,et al.  The Rise of Cognitive Architectures , 2007, Integrated Models of Cognitive Systems.

[16]  C. Frith,et al.  The Role of Working Memory in Visual Selective Attention , 2001, Science.

[17]  J. Reynolds,et al.  Temporal Resolution for the Perception of Features and Conjunctions , 2007, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[18]  J. Wolfe,et al.  What attributes guide the deployment of visual attention and how do they do it? , 2004, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[19]  D. Kahneman,et al.  The reviewing of object files: Object-specific integration of information , 1992, Cognitive Psychology.

[20]  Robert Rauschenberger,et al.  When something old becomes something new: spatiotemporal object continuity and attentional capture. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[21]  Glyn W Humphreys,et al.  Dissociating the effects of similarity, salience, and top-down processes in search for linearly separable size targets , 2006, Perception & psychophysics.

[22]  J. Wolfe,et al.  Guided Search 2.0 A revised model of visual search , 1994, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[23]  J. C. Johnston,et al.  Involuntary covert orienting is contingent on attentional control settings. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[24]  Jan Theeuwes,et al.  Prioritization by transients in visual search , 2005, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[25]  D. Simons,et al.  Moving and looming stimuli capture attention , 2003, Perception & psychophysics.

[26]  D H Brainard,et al.  The Psychophysics Toolbox. , 1997, Spatial vision.

[27]  C. Koch,et al.  Probabilistic modeling of eye movement data during conjunction search via feature-based attention. , 2007, Journal of vision.

[28]  Glyn W. Humphreys,et al.  Visual marking: using time in visual selection , 2003, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[29]  G. Humphreys,et al.  The effect of target foreknowledge on visual search for categorically separable orientation targets , 2005, Vision Research.

[30]  Patrick Cavanagh,et al.  Early binding of feature pairs for visual perception , 2001, Nature Neuroscience.

[31]  Susan L. Franzel,et al.  Guided search: an alternative to the feature integration model for visual search. , 1989, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[32]  Zhaoping Li,et al.  Feature-specific interactions in salience from combined feature contrasts: evidence for a bottom-up saliency map in V1. , 2007, Journal of vision.

[33]  B G Breitmeyer,et al.  Implications of sustained and transient channels for theories of visual pattern masking, saccadic suppression, and information processing. , 1976, Psychological review.

[34]  G. Humphreys,et al.  Visual marking: prioritizing selection for new objects by top-down attentional inhibition of old objects. , 1997, Psychological review.

[35]  S. Yantis,et al.  Object continuity in apparent motion and attention. , 1994, Canadian journal of experimental psychology = Revue canadienne de psychologie experimentale.

[36]  M. Posner,et al.  Components of visual orienting , 1984 .

[37]  D. Surmeier,et al.  Grouping of image fragments in primary visual cortex , 2022 .

[38]  Marvin M Chun,et al.  Visual marking: selective attention to asynchronous temporal groups. , 2002, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[39]  H. Egeth,et al.  Searching for conjunctively defined targets. , 1984, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[40]  Harold Bekkering,et al.  Visual search near threshold: Some features are more equal than others. , 2006, Journal of vision.

[41]  Bruno G. Breitmeyer,et al.  The first half second : the microgenesis and temporal dynamics of unconscious and conscious visual processes , 2006 .

[42]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Parallel distributed processing: explorations in the microstructure of cognition, vol. 1: foundations , 1986 .

[43]  Jeremy M. Wolfe,et al.  Guided Search 4.0: Current Progress With a Model of Visual Search , 2007, Integrated Models of Cognitive Systems.

[44]  P. H. Schiller,et al.  The role of the primate extrastriate area V4 in vision. , 1991, Science.

[45]  Z Li,et al.  Pre-attentive segmentation in the primary visual cortex. , 1998, Spatial vision.

[46]  David C Knill,et al.  Sensorimotor Processing and Goal-Directed Movement. , 2007, Journal of vision.

[47]  Evan M. Palmer,et al.  Measuring the Timecourse of Guidance in Visual Search Measuring the Timecourse of Guidance in Visual Search , 2010 .

[48]  J. Wolfe,et al.  The role of categorization in visual search for orientation. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[49]  Yuhong Jiang,et al.  Setting up the target template in visual search. , 2005, Journal of vision.

[50]  Zenon W. Pylyshyn,et al.  Situating vision in the world , 2000, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[51]  C. Gilbert,et al.  Improvement in visual sensitivity by changes in local context: Parallel studies in human observers and in V1 of alert monkeys , 1995, Neuron.

[52]  Vision Research , 1961, Nature.

[53]  M. Proulx.  Bottom-up guidance in visual search for conjunctions. , 2007, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[54]  Melina A. Kunar,et al.  History Matters , 2003, Psychological science.

[55]  S. Yantis,et al.  Abrupt visual onsets and selective attention: evidence from visual search. , 1984, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.