Lamy Dominique, Carmel Tomer, Egeth Howard E, Leber Andrew B
Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, P.O. Box 39040, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
Percept Psychophys. 2006 Aug;68(6):919-32. doi: 10.3758/bf03193355.
There is no consensus as to what information guides search for a singleton target. Does the most salient display element capture attention, regardless of the observer's attentional set? Do observers adopt a default salience-based search mode? Does knowledge of the target's defining featural property (when available) affect search? Finally, can intertrial contingencies account for the disparate results in the literature? We investigated search for a shape singleton when (1) the target and nontarget shapes switched unpredictably from trial to trial, (2) the target feature remained fixed, and (3) the target was a singleton on only one third of the trials. We examined overall reaction times, search slopes, errors, and the magnitude of the slowing caused by a cross-dimensional singleton distractor. Our results argue against the idea that search is guided solely by stimulus-driven factors or that subjects adopt a singleton detection mode that is blind to feature information. They show also that intertrial contingencies, although potent, cannot account for the variety of results in the literature.
对于何种信息引导对单一目标的搜索，目前尚无共识。最显著的显示元素是否会吸引注意力，而不论观察者的注意力集如何？观察者是否采用默认的基于显著性的搜索模式？对目标定义特征属性的了解（如果有）是否会影响搜索？最后，试次间的偶然性能否解释文献中不同的结果？我们研究了在以下情况下对形状单一目标的搜索：（1）目标和非目标形状在试次间不可预测地切换；（2）目标特征保持固定；（3）目标仅在三分之一的试次中为单一目标。我们检查了总体反应时间、搜索斜率、错误以及由跨维度单一干扰项导致的反应减慢程度。我们的结果反对这样的观点，即搜索仅由刺激驱动因素引导，或者受试者采用对特征信息视而不见的单一目标检测模式。结果还表明，试次间的偶然性虽然作用强大，但无法解释文献中的各种结果。
