Department of Psychology, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2022 Apr;84(3):760-770. doi: 10.3758/s13414-022-02477-4. Epub 2022 Mar 31.
Previous research has shown that the presence of a distractor object matching the current content of working memory interacts with visual search. Because finding a target and quitting a search without finding a target may be implemented by qualitatively different processes, it is possible that the effects of a memory-matching distractor on target-present trials and on target-absent trials reveal different mechanisms by which the memory-matching distractor interacts with visual search. Although previous studies have well established the effect of attentional capture by a memory-matching distractor when the target object is found in the search display, there remains an open question about whether the presence of a memory-matching distractor can affect the process of search termination when no target is found. In the present study, we showed that search termination times on target-absent trials were delayed by the presence of a distractor matching the content of visual working memory. This delayed quitting effect cannot be conceived of as a more general influence of visual short-term memory, because the presence of a distractor matching the content of passive visual short-term memory (i.e., visual priming) did not influence quitting behavior in visual search. These findings offer a novel perspective that distractors matching the information maintained in visual working memory can cause observers to delay search termination when no target has been found.
先前的研究表明，与当前工作记忆内容匹配的分心物的存在会与视觉搜索相互作用。由于找到目标并在未找到目标的情况下退出搜索可能是通过不同的过程来实现的，因此，记忆匹配分心物对目标存在试验和目标不存在试验的影响可能揭示了记忆匹配分心物与视觉搜索相互作用的不同机制。尽管先前的研究已经充分证实了当目标物体在搜索显示中被找到时，记忆匹配分心物对注意力捕获的影响，但仍有一个悬而未决的问题，即当没有目标时，记忆匹配分心物的存在是否会影响搜索终止的过程。在本研究中，我们表明，当目标不存在时，与视觉工作记忆内容匹配的分心物的存在会延迟搜索终止时间。这种延迟退出效应不能被视为视觉短期记忆的更普遍影响，因为与被动视觉短期记忆（即视觉启动）内容匹配的分心物的存在并不影响视觉搜索中的退出行为。这些发现提供了一个新的视角，即与视觉工作记忆中保持的信息匹配的分心物会导致观察者在未找到目标时延迟搜索终止。
