Independence of long-term contextual memory and short-term perceptual hypotheses: Evidence from contextual cueing of interrupted search

Abstract

Observers are able to resume an interrupted search trial faster relative to responding to a new, unseen display. This finding of rapid resumption is attributed to short-term perceptual hypotheses generated on the current look and confirmed upon subsequent looks at the same display. It has been suggested that the contents of perceptual hypotheses are similar to those of other forms of memory acquired long-term through repeated exposure to the same search displays over the course of several trials, that is, the memory supporting “contextual cueing.” In three experiments, we investigated the relationship between short-term perceptual hypotheses and long-term contextual memory. The results indicated that long-term, contextual memory of repeated displays neither affected the generation nor the confirmation of short-term perceptual hypotheses for these displays. Furthermore, the analysis of eye movements suggests that long-term memory provides an initial benefit in guiding attention to the target, whereas in subsequent looks guidance is entirely based on short-term perceptual hypotheses. Overall, the results reveal a picture of both long- and short-term memory contributing to reliable performance gains in interrupted search, while exerting their effects in an independent manner.

Contextual cueing of tactile search is coded in an anatomical reference frame.

“…Chun and Jiang (1998) took these findings to mean that learned spatial target-distractor associations, stored in implicit long-term memory, come to guide the search, for example, by bringing focal attention more effectively to the target location. Since then, the beneficial effects of repeated contexts on search guidance have been replicated numerous times (e.g., Geyer, Zehetleitner, & Müller, 2010; Johnson, Woodman, Braun, & Luck, 2007; Peterson & Kramer, 2001; Schlagbauer, Mink, Müller, & Geyer, 2017).…”

Spatial predictive context speeds up visual search by biasing local attentional competition

“…Importantly, we were able to demonstrate the behavioral relevance of target power compared to the far-standing distractor on all trials , both Old and New. This may serve as evidence of efficient versus inefficient visual search (Schlagbauer et al, 2017; Tseng & Li, 2004), where higher power at the target relative to the distractor at the opposite position of the visual field indicates that the random starting point of search was immediately in the right direction. Our analyses of Old displays , instead, show the behavioral advantage of Target power compared to the near standing distractor.…”

Cross‐modal contextual memory guides selective attention in visual‐search tasks

“…Furthermore, guidance of selective attention by learnt contexts is assumed to be implicit and automatic, as participants are typically unable to reliably discern repeated from nonrepeated in post-experimental (yes−/ no) recognition tasks (e.g., Goujon et al, 2015) and they persist to deploy attention to the learnt location even after consistent repositioning of the target to some other location (e.g., Zinchenko, Conci, Hauser, et al, 2020). Chun and Jiang's (1998) attention account of contextual cueing receives support from many subsequent studies using a variety of behavioral and electro−/physiological measures (e.g., Brockmole & Henderson, 2006;Chen et al, 2021a;Geyer et al, 2010;Giesbrecht et al, 2013;Johnson et al, 2007;Peterson & Kramer, 2001;Schlagbauer et al, 2017;Tseng & Li, 2004;Zinchenko, Conci, Töllner, et al, 2020). However, there are other findings suggesting that contextual cueing might also facilitate later, responseselection and/or motor-execution stages of processing, when participants make a decision about which motor (hand) effector is required for a correct manual response (i.e., response-selection account of contextual cueing; see, e.g., Chen et al, 2021a;Hout & Goldinger, 2012;Kunar et al, 2007;Schankin & Schubö, 2010).…”