Target selection bias transfers across different response actions.

Target selection is biased by recent experience. For example, a selected target feature may be stored in memory and bias selection on future trials, such that objects matching that feature are "primed" for selection. In the present study, we examined the role of action history in selection biases. Participants searched for a uniquely colored object. Pretrial cues indicated whether participants should respond with a keypress or a reach movement. If the representation of the feature that biases selection is critically bound with its associated action, we would expect priming effects to be restricted to cases where both the response mode and target color are repeated. However, we found that responses to the target were faster when the target color was repeated, even when the response switched from a reach to a keypress, or vice versa. Priming effects were even observed after "no-go" trials in which a response was withheld, and priming effects transferred across response modes when eye movement recordings ensured that participants did not saccade to the target. These results demonstrate that target features are represented in memory separately from their associated actions and can bias selection on subsequent trials even when a different mode of action output is required.