Lie Kin-Pou
School of Arts and Social Sciences, The Open University of Hong Kong, 30 Good Shepherd Street, Ho Man Tin, Hong Kong, China,
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2015 Jan;77(1):160-72. doi: 10.3758/s13414-014-0754-8.
Spatial contextual cueing refers to visual search performance's being improved when invariant associations between target locations and distractor spatial configurations are learned incidentally. Using the instance theory of automatization and the reverse hierarchy theory of visual perceptual learning, this study explores the acquisition of visual specificity in spatial contextual cueing. Two experiments in which detailed visual features were irrelevant for distinguishing between spatial contexts found that spatial contextual cueing was visually generic in difficult trials when the trials were not preceded by easy trials (Experiment 1) but that spatial contextual cueing progressed to visual specificity when difficult trials were preceded by easy trials (Experiment 2). These findings support reverse hierarchy theory, which predicts that even when detailed visual features are irrelevant for distinguishing between spatial contexts, spatial contextual cueing can progress to visual specificity if the stimuli remain constant, the task is difficult, and difficult trials are preceded by easy trials. However, these findings are inconsistent with instance theory, which predicts that when detailed visual features are irrelevant for distinguishing between spatial contexts, spatial contextual cueing will not progress to visual specificity. This study concludes that the acquisition of visual specificity in spatial contextual cueing is more plausibly hierarchical, rather than instance-based.
空间情境线索化是指当目标位置与干扰项空间配置之间的不变关联被偶然习得时，视觉搜索性能会得到改善。本研究运用自动化实例理论和视觉感知学习的反向层次理论，探讨空间情境线索化中视觉特异性的习得情况。两项实验中，详细的视觉特征与区分空间情境无关，结果发现，当困难试验之前没有简单试验时（实验1），空间情境线索化在困难试验中是视觉通用的，但当困难试验之前有简单试验时（实验2），空间情境线索化会发展为视觉特异性。这些发现支持了反向层次理论，该理论预测，即使详细的视觉特征与区分空间情境无关，但如果刺激保持不变、任务困难且困难试验之前有简单试验，空间情境线索化也可以发展为视觉特异性。然而，这些发现与实例理论不一致，实例理论预测，当详细的视觉特征与区分空间情境无关时，空间情境线索化不会发展为视觉特异性。本研究得出结论，空间情境线索化中视觉特异性的习得更可能是分层的，而非基于实例的。
