Becker Stefanie I
University of Bielefeld.
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 2008 Dec;34(6):1417-40. doi: 10.1037/a0011386.
This study investigated feature- and dimension-based intertrial effects in visual search for a pop-out target. The 2 prominent theories explaining intertrial effects, priming of pop-out and dimension weighting, both assume that repeating the target from the previous trial facilitates attention shifts to the target, whereas changing the target leads to attentional switch costs. In contrast, the results from the present study indicate that intertrial effects from changing features and dimensions involve different underlying mechanisms: Eye movement recordings showed that feature priming reliably modulates the speed of visually selecting the target, whereas changing the target dimension interferes only with processes after selection of the search target. Further experiments with a size and orientation singleton target showed that feature priming does not consist in carryover effects of target activation or nontarget inhibition, contrary to standard assumptions in visual search. Instead, priming effects critically depended on whether a coarse relation between target and nontarget features (e.g., smaller or larger) was repeated or reversed across trials. These results suggest the need to modify current models of priming in visual search.
本研究调查了视觉搜索弹出式目标时基于特征和维度的试验间效应。解释试验间效应的两个主要理论，即弹出式启动和维度加权，都假定重复前一次试验中的目标有助于将注意力转移到该目标上，而改变目标则会导致注意力转换成本。相比之下，本研究的结果表明，特征和维度变化所产生的试验间效应涉及不同的潜在机制：眼动记录显示，特征启动可靠地调节了视觉选择目标的速度，而改变目标维度仅干扰搜索目标选择后的过程。对大小和方向单一目标进行的进一步实验表明，与视觉搜索中的标准假设相反，特征启动并非由目标激活或非目标抑制的遗留效应组成。相反，启动效应关键取决于目标与非目标特征之间的粗略关系（例如，更小或更大）在各试验间是重复还是反转。这些结果表明有必要修改当前视觉搜索中的启动模型。
