Monitoring Processes in Visual Search Enhanced by Professional Experience: The Case of Orange Quality-Control Workers

Abstract

Visual search tasks have often been used to investigate how cognitive processes change with expertise. Several studies have shown visual experts' advantages in detecting objects related to their expertise. Here, we tried to extend these findings by investigating whether professional search experience could boost top-down monitoring processes involved in visual search, independently of advantages specific to objects of expertise. To this aim, we recruited a group of quality-control workers employed in citrus farms. Given the specific features of this type of job, we expected that the extensive employment of monitoring mechanisms during orange selection could enhance these mechanisms even in search situations in which orange-related expertise is not suitable. To test this hypothesis, we compared performance of our experimental group and of a well-matched control group on a computerized visual search task. In one block the target was an orange (expertise target) while in the other block the target was a Smurfette doll (neutral target). The a priori hypothesis was to find an advantage for quality-controllers in those situations in which monitoring was especially involved, that is, when deciding the presence/absence of the target required a more extensive inspection of the search array. Results were consistent with our hypothesis. Quality-controllers were faster in those conditions that extensively required monitoring processes, specifically, the Smurfette-present and both target-absent conditions. No differences emerged in the orange-present condition, which resulted to mainly rely on bottom-up processes. These results suggest that top-down processes in visual search can be enhanced through immersive real-life experience beyond visual expertise advantages.

The interplay between control processes and feature relevance: Evidence from dual-task methodology

“…At this stage, we tested whether adding further confounding variables to the final model could explain significant variance. Next, as a visual inspection of the residuals showed that the models were a bit stressed by the presence of outlier observations, we performed a residual analysis to identify possible outliers that could distort the results by “pulling” the regression line towards them (see Visalli & Vallesi, 2018). As suggested by Baayen and Milin (2010), the final models were re-fitted after excluding observations with absolute standard residuals greater than 3 (0.69% and 4.15% of analysed trials for RT and accuracy, respectively).…”

Right-lateralized intrinsic brain dynamics predict monitoring abilities

“…Monitoring has been conceptualized as a set of "qualitycheck" processes that allow individuals to optimize performance. For example, monitoring is required when we evaluate the progress of our actual weight loss toward an ideal planned weight (Benn et al, 2014), when we search for a red flag surrounded by other colored flags to locate our meeting point (Visalli & Vallesi, 2018;Vallesi, 2014), or when we predict the timing at which the yellow traffic light will turn red (Nobre et al, 2007;Vallesi et al, 2013). These real-life examples show that monitoring abilities may be operationalized in laboratory settings either as sustained processes operating throughout the trial or as more transient processes acting on each individually presented item (Braver et al, 2003;Tarantino et al, 2017).…”

Visual search asymmetry depends on target-distractor feature similarity: Is the asymmetry simply a result of distractor rejection speed?

“…Indeed, models of attentional selection, such as the guided search model (Wolfe, 1994), have shown that the efficiency of search through an array of distractors does not improve even after prolonged exposure to said distractors in extensive trials. Thus, rather than reducing the item selection rate, distractor familiarity may influence preattentive or postattentive processing, such as search monitoring and termination processes (e.g., Hout & Goldinger, 2012;Visalli & Vallesi, 2018).…”