Spatial information can incidentally guide attention to the likely location of a target. This contextual cueing was even observed if only the relative configuration, but not the individual locations of distractor items were repeated or vice versa (Jiang & Wagner in Perception & Psychophysics, 66(3), 454-463, 2004). The present study investigated the contribution of global configuration and individual spatial location to contextual cueing. Participants repeatedly searched 12 visual search displays in a learning session. In a subsequent transfer session, there were four conditions: fully repeated configurations (same as the displays in the learning session), recombined configurations from two learned configurations with the same target location (preserving distractor locations but not configuration), rotated configurations (preserving configuration but not distractor locations), and new configurations. We could show that contextual cueing occurred if only distractor locations or relative configuration, randomly intermixed, was preserved in a single experiment. Beyond replicating the results of Jiang and Wagner, we made an adjustment to a particular type of transformationthat may have occurred in separate experimentsunlikely. Moreover, contextual cueing in rotated configurations showed that repeated configurations can serve as context cues even without preserved azimuth.

We investigated if contextual cueing can be guided by egocentric and allocentric reference frames. Combinations of search configurations and external frame orientations were learned during a training phase. In Experiment 1, either the frame orientation or the configuration was rotated, thereby disrupting either the allocentric or egocentric and allocentric predictions of the target location. Contextual cueing survived both of these manipulations, suggesting that it can overcome interference from both reference frames. In contrast, when changed orientations of the external frame became valid predictors of the target location in Experiment 2, we observed contextual cueing as long as one reference frame was predictive of the target location, but contextual cueing was eliminated when both reference frames were invalid. Thus, search guidance in repeated contexts can be supported by both egocentric and allocentric reference frames as long as they contain valid information about the search goal.

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This study explored whether infants understand information transmission in a third‐party communication context involving multiple agents. Infants aged 12 and 15 months were habituated to two agents pursuing two different objects and then tested with one agent (the communicator) interacting with a new agent (the recipient), whereas the other agent (the noncommunicator) did not interact with anyone. Results showed that 15‐month‐olds looked for longer when the recipient reached toward the preferred object of the noncommunicator in contrast to that of the communicator, suggesting that they recognized information transmitted from the communicator (versus the noncommunicator) to the recipient. Furthermore, the information was perceived as being specifically transmitted between agents, and this inference was not driven by the low‐level perceptual factors of the communicator or the communication itself. However, 12‐month‐old infants did not show an understanding of transmission between the agents. The selective understanding of information transmitted among multiple agents, and the critical role of agency in such understanding are discussed.

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