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

Zhang, Yichi Raven; Onyper, Serge V.

doi:10.3758/s13414-019-01818-0

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…However, participants are slow in concluding that no unfamiliar letter is present, exhibiting a search time pattern consistent with a serial search for "target absent" responses only (Wang, Cavanagh, & Green, 1994;Zhang & Onyper, 2020). In the context of my proposal here, this can be an indication for a blind-spot of the mental self-model, failing to represent the fact that an unfamiliar letter would stand out (see Fig.…”

Section: Visual Search: "I Would Have Found It"mentioning

confidence: 74%

Inference about Absence as a Window into the Mental Self-Model

Mazor¹

2021

Preprint

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To represent something as absent, one must know that they would have known if it was present. This form of counterfactual reasoning critically relies on a mental self-model: a simplified schema of one’s own cognition, which specifies expected perceptual and cognitive states under different world states and affords better monitoring and control over cognitive resources. Here I propose to use inference about absence as a unique window into the structure and function of the mental self-model. In contrast to commonly used paradigms, using inference about absence bypasses the need for explicit metacognitive reports. I draw on findings from low-level perception, spatial attention, and episodic memory, in support of the idea that self knowledge is a computational bottleneck for efficient inference about absence, making inference about absence a cross-cutting framework for probing key features of the mental self-model that are not accessible for introspection.

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Section: Visual Search: "I Would Have Found It"mentioning

confidence: 74%

Inference about Absence as a Window into the Mental Self-Model

Mazor¹

2021

Preprint

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“…Finally, the tasks measured bias in distinct ways and the differences in methodology could explain the discrepant results. For one, it is often difficult to disentangle search from postsearch processes (Mruczek & Sheinberg, 2005;Zhang & Onyper, 2020) and, therefore, caution is needed to interpret our results as being purely driven by changes in the search template.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Working memory is corrupted by strategic changes in search templates

2020

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When searching for a specific object, we often form an image of the target, which we use as a search template. This template is thought to be maintained in working memory, primarily because of evidence that the contents of working memory influences search behavior. However, it is unknown whether this interaction applies in both directions. Here, we show that changes in search templates influence working memory. Participants were asked to remember the orientation of a line that changed every trial, and on some trials (75%) search for that orientation, but on remaining trials recall the orientation. Critically, we manipulated the target template by introducing a predictable context-distractors in the visual search task were always counterclockwise (or clockwise) from the search target. The predictable context produced a large bias in search. Importantly, we also found a similar bias in orientation memory reports, demonstrating that working memory and target templates were not held as completely separate, isolated representations. However, the memory bias was considerably smaller than the search bias, suggesting that, although there is a common source, the two may not be driven by a single, shared process. to working memory representations (Soto, Hodsoll, Rotshtein, & Humphreys, 2008), at least when targets change on a per trial basis (Woodman, Luck, & Schall, 2007). Versions of this theory vary in the nature of the relationship between the two constructs. According to some theories, being stored in working memory may be necessary but not sufficient for a representation to be a template (Dube & Al-Aidroos, 2019; Hollingworth & Hwang, 2013), that is, templates require some additional top-down process, such as attention (Gunseli, Meeter, & Olivers, 2014; van Driel, Gunseli, Meeter, & Olivers, 2017). There is evidence that attentional templates have independent properties from working memory representations, suggesting that the two can be dissociated (Carlisle & Woodman, 2011, 2013; Kerzel, 2019). However, most theories tend to favor a strong link between the two constructs. Evidence for the overlap of templates and working memory representations comes largely from studies showing that the contents of working memory influence attention, commonly referred to as memory-driven attentional capture (Downing, 2000; Olivers, Meijer, & Theeuwes, 2006; Soto, Heinke, Humphreys, & Blanco, 2005). Here we examine this interaction in the other direction. Previous research has found that memory representations improve due to visual search (Rajsic, Ouslis, Wilson, & Pratt, 2017; Williams, Henderson, & Zacks, 2005). However, it is difficult to disentangle the memory improvement because of an item becoming the search template from the general memory improvement that comes from attending to an item for longer, either while present or within memory (i.e., the retro-cue effect; Griffin & Nobre, 2003). Instead, we will directly ask whether changes in the target template will influence memory reports. If target templates are equivalent to me...

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“…Further studies can be conducted from two perspectives to explore the effect of working memory on familiarity effect in visual search task. One route is to adopt short phrases as visual search materials to make the semantic processing to be comparable to the object images used in Mruczek and Sheinberg 17 . The other one is to avoid verbal encoding during the memory task, such as using irregular patterns or location memory task instead, to examine the effect of visual working memory on familiarity effects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Secondly, when searching items involve complex perceptual features and even semantic meanings, the familiarity of target could also influence the search efficiency. For instance, Mruczek and Sheinberg 17 used images of daily objects as searching materials, such as lamps, cars, chairs, butterflies, teddy bears, and bamboo baskets. They asked participants to familiarize themselves with images for 4 or 5 days 1 week before performing the search task.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, when the perceptual load of visual stimuli is high, such as a great many of different stimuli or complex perceptual discriminations (e.g. 17 , 19 , 20 ), the attentional resource would be insufficient to process task-irrelevant stimuli in parallel. Thus the top-down cognitive control may allocate more attentional resource to the visual target, leading the visual search efficiency to be facilitated by the familiar target.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Target familiarity and visual working memory do not influence familiarity effect in visual search

Guo

Niu

Wang

2021

Sci Rep

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Familiarity effect refers to the phenomenon that searching for a novel target among familiar distractors is more efficient than that searching for a familiar target among novel distractors. While the familiarity of distractors is considered as a key role on familiarity effect, the familiarity of targets contribute to this asymmetric visual search is unclear. The present study investigated how target familiarity influences visual search efficiency from the perspective of perceptual load. Experiment 1 using two similar Chinese characters (“甲” and “由”) suggested that searching for a familiar target from familiar distractors is an inefficient search process in Chinese context. Experiment 2 adopted a dual-task paradigm with a visual working memory task to increase the perceptual load and attempt to affect the efficiency of searching a novel target (mirrored “舌”) from familiar distractors (“舌”). Results demonstrated no difference in the search efficiency between single and dual-task conditions. The present study suggests that the familiarity of target does not influence the search efficiency with familiar distractors when involving semantic processing of Chinese characters. Additionally, the interference of extra working memory load would not impair the efficiency of searching target among familiar distractors, supporting the critical effect of distractor familiarity on the efficiency of visual search.

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

Cited by 8 publications

References 48 publications

Inference about Absence as a Window into the Mental Self-Model

Inference about Absence as a Window into the Mental Self-Model

Working memory is corrupted by strategic changes in search templates

Target familiarity and visual working memory do not influence familiarity effect in visual search

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