Hout Michael C, Robbins Arryn, Godwin Hayward J, Fitzsimmons Gemma, Scarince Collin
Department of Psychology, New Mexico State University, P.O. Box 30001/MSC 3452, Las Cruces, NM, 88003, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2017 Aug;79(6):1578-1592. doi: 10.3758/s13414-017-1354-1.
Unlike in laboratory visual search tasks-wherein participants are typically presented with a pictorial representation of the item they are asked to seek out-in real-world searches, the observer rarely has veridical knowledge of the visual features that define their target. During categorical search, observers look for any instance of a categorically defined target (e.g., helping a family member look for their mobile phone). In these circumstances, people may not have information about noncritical features (e.g., the phone's color), and must instead create a broad mental representation using the features that define (or are typical of) the category of objects they are seeking out (e.g., modern phones are typically rectangular and thin). In the current investigation (Experiment 1), using a categorical visual search task, we add to the body of evidence suggesting that categorical templates are effective enough to conduct efficient visual searches. When color information was available (Experiment 1a), attentional guidance, attention restriction, and object identification were enhanced when participants looked for categories with consistent features (e.g., ambulances) relative to categories with more variable features (e.g., sedans). When color information was removed (Experiment 1b), attention benefits disappeared, but object recognition was still better for feature-consistent target categories. In Experiment 2, we empirically validated the relative homogeneity of our societally important vehicle stimuli. Taken together, our results are in line with a category-consistent view of categorical target templates (Yu, Maxfield, & Zelinsky in, Psychological Science, 2016. doi: 10.1177/0956797616640237 ), and suggest that when features of a category are consistent and predictable, searchers can create mental representations that allow for the efficient guidance and restriction of attention as well as swift object identification.
与实验室视觉搜索任务不同（在实验室视觉搜索任务中，参与者通常会看到他们被要求找出的物品的图片），在现实世界的搜索中，观察者很少能确切知晓定义其目标的视觉特征。在分类搜索中，观察者寻找分类定义目标的任何实例（例如，帮助家庭成员寻找他们的手机）。在这些情况下，人们可能没有关于非关键特征的信息（例如，手机的颜色），而是必须使用定义（或典型）他们正在寻找的物体类别的特征来创建一个宽泛的心理表征（例如，现代手机通常是长方形且薄的）。在当前的研究（实验1）中，我们使用分类视觉搜索任务，补充了一系列证据，表明分类模板足以有效地进行高效的视觉搜索。当颜色信息可用时（实验1a），与具有更多可变特征的类别（例如轿车）相比，当参与者寻找具有一致特征的类别（例如救护车）时，注意力引导、注意力限制和物体识别得到了增强。当颜色信息被去除时（实验1b），注意力优势消失了，但对于特征一致的目标类别，物体识别仍然更好。在实验2中，我们通过实证验证了我们具有社会重要性的车辆刺激的相对同质性。综合来看，我们的结果与分类目标模板的类别一致观点相符（Yu、Maxfield和Zelinsky，《心理科学》，2016年。doi:10.1177/0956797616640237），并表明当一个类别的特征是一致且可预测的时，搜索者可以创建心理表征，从而实现注意力的有效引导和限制以及快速的物体识别。
