Cui Andrea Yaoyun, Buetti Simona, Xu Zoe Jing, Lleras Alejandro
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, 61820, United States.
Sci Rep. 2025 Mar 5;15(1):7760. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-92453-3.
Traditionally, researchers interpret the difficulty in conjunction search as difficulty in binding features. In the present study, we used a behavioral-computational approach to assess if parameters from feature search could predict performance in a color-shape conjunction search task. We also investigated whether pooling-mediated processing in peripheral regions was a key-limiting factor in performance in conjunction search by manipulating display arrangements across different experiments. The results indicated that parameters in homogeneous search displays can indeed be used to successfully predict performance in conjunction search displays. This finding is noteworthy because it indicates that the visual system must be extracting the same information from the display in feature and conjunction search tasks (i.e., the target-distractor similarity) using color and shape. Furthermore, there was no compelling evidence that pooling-mediated processing was the primary constraint on performance in this conjunction search task. A model-comparison approach compared the accuracy of different distractor rejection architectures in predicting performance in conjunction search tasks. The winning model showed participants engaging hierarchically with the display, selecting and rejecting distractor subsets based on a single defining feature. Taken in the context of previous research on heterogeneous search performance, the current results imply that the inherent demands of search for a conjunction of color and shape compel participants to adopt this targeted search strategy.
传统上，研究人员将联合搜索中的困难解释为特征绑定的困难。在本研究中，我们采用行为计算方法来评估特征搜索的参数是否能够预测颜色 - 形状联合搜索任务中的表现。我们还通过在不同实验中操纵显示布局，研究了外周区域的池化介导处理是否是联合搜索表现的关键限制因素。结果表明，同质搜索显示中的参数确实可以成功预测联合搜索显示中的表现。这一发现值得注意，因为它表明视觉系统在特征搜索和联合搜索任务中（即目标 - 干扰项相似性）必须使用颜色和形状从显示中提取相同的信息。此外，没有令人信服的证据表明池化介导处理是该联合搜索任务表现的主要限制因素。一种模型比较方法比较了不同干扰项排除架构在预测联合搜索任务表现方面的准确性。获胜模型表明，参与者会分层处理显示内容，基于单个定义特征选择和排除干扰项子集。结合先前关于异质搜索表现的研究来看，当前结果意味着搜索颜色和形状联合的内在要求迫使参与者采用这种有针对性的搜索策略。
