Working memory and target-related distractor effects on visual search

Balani, Alex Bahrami; Soto, David; Humphreys, Glyn W.

doi:10.3758/mc.38.8.1058

Cited by 15 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…There is a substantial body of work on the interaction of working memory and visual search (Poole & Kane, 2009; Sobel, Gerrie, Poole, & Kane, 2006). Holding an item in working memory influences the course of visual search (Balani, Soto, & Humphreys, 2010; Luria & Vogel, 2011; Olivers, Peters, Houtkamp, & Roelfsema, 2011; Soto, Heinke, Humphreys, & Blanco, 2005) (and vice versa (Eriksen, Eriksen, & Hoffman, 1986)). This leads to the hypothesis that the representation of the target (“search template”) resides in working memory, perhaps in an “active” subset of that working memory (Beck, Hollingworth, & Luck, 2011; Olivers et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of object categories in hybrid visual and memory search.

Cunningham¹,

Wolfe

2014

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

105

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In hybrid search, observers (Os) search for any of several possible targets in a visual display containing distracting items and, perhaps, a target. Wolfe (2012) found that responses times (RT) in such tasks increased linearly with increases in the number of items in the display. However, RT increased linearly with the log of the number of items in the memory set. In earlier work, all items in the memory set were unique instances (e.g. this apple in this pose). Typical real world tasks involve more broadly defined sets of stimuli (e.g. any “apple” or, perhaps, “fruit”). The present experiments show how sets or categories of targets are handled in joint visual and memory search. In Experiment 1, searching for a digit among letters was not like searching for targets from a 10-item memory set, though searching for targets from an N-item memory set of arbitrary alphanumeric characters was like searching for targets from an N-item memory set of arbitrary objects. In Experiment 2, Os searched for any instance of N sets or categories held in memory. This hybrid search was harder than search for specific objects. However, memory search remained logarithmic. Experiment 3 illustrates the interaction of visual guidance and memory search when a subset of visual stimuli are drawn from a target category. Furthermore, we outline a conceptual model, supported by our results, defining the core components that would be necessary to support such categorical hybrid searches.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of object categories in hybrid visual and memory search.

Cunningham¹,

Wolfe

2014

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

105

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“…Studies using more complex objects have yielded only mixed results regarding the degree to which attentional capture is dependent on the visual similarity between the WM item and the irrelevant distracters in the search display. One study (Bahrami Balani, Soto, & Humphreys, 2010) found guidance towards distracters that were exemplars of the same category as the WM item. There was also some evidence that distracters that were semantically associated with the WM item captured attention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In these experiments, both the WM item and the target stimulus tend to rely on similar representations, i.e. they are both objects, in some cases even objects from the same superordinate category (Bahrami Balani et al, 2010). Thus, it can be difficult to disentangle the effects of WM-guided capture and capture by the target-related attentional set.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, these studies have yielded mixed results regarding the extent to which attentional capture occurs for abstract visual information. Moreover, in some of these studies it can be difficult to disentangle the effects of the WM item and the search target on attentional capture, especially if they may rely on overlying attentional sets (Bahrami Balani et al, 2010). Critically, in our task the search targets for the primary and secondary tasks were chosen such that the overlap in attentional sets were minimal (people, cars, and trees, vs. triangle).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Automatic guidance of attention during real-world visual search

Seidl-Rathkopf

Turk‐Browne

Kästner

2015

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Looking for objects in cluttered natural environments is a frequent task in everyday life. This process can be difficult, as the features, locations, and times of appearance of relevant objects are often not known in advance. A mechanism by which attention is automatically biased toward information that is potentially relevant may thus be helpful. Here we tested for such a mechanism across five experiments by engaging participants in real-world visual search and then assessing attentional capture for information that was related to the search set but was otherwise irrelevant. Isolated objects captured attention while preparing to search for objects from the same category embedded in a scene, as revealed by lower detection performance (Experiment 1A). This capture effect was driven by a central processing bottleneck rather than the withdrawal of spatial attention (Experiment 1B), occurred automatically even in a secondary task (Experiment 2A), and reflected enhancement of matching information rather than suppression of non-matching information (Experiment 2B). Finally, attentional capture extended to objects that were semantically associated with the target category (Experiment 3). We conclude that attention is efficiently drawn towards a wide range of information that may be relevant for an upcoming real-world visual search. This mechanism may be adaptive, allowing us to find information useful for our behavioral goals in the face of uncertainty.

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“…For visual and memory set sizes in the range of 1–4 characters, search times are roughly linear with the product of visual and memory set sizes (Schneider & Shiffrin, 1977). More recent work paints a complicated picture of the effects of working memory loads on visual search (Balani, Soto, & Humphreys, 2010; Downing & Dodds, 2004; Han & Kim, 2004; Woodman, Vogel, & Luck, 2001) (Olivers, Peters, Houtkamp, & Roelfsema, 2011) but as a general rule these are studies in which working memory is pitted against search. We do not know how memory and vision work together when stimuli are drawn from the wide set of visual objects beyond alphanumeric characters nor what happens when the numbers of task relevant items held in memory gets well beyond the limits of working memory.…”

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confidence: 99%

Saved by a Log

2012

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Could you find one of your 1000 Facebook friends in a crowd of 100? Even at rates of 20–40 comparisons/sec, determining that no friends were in the crowd would take ~40–50 minutes if memory and visual search interacted linearly. Our observers memorized pictures of 1–100 targets and then searched for any target in visual displays of 1–16 objects. Response times varied linearly with visual set size but l–16 accurately predicted response times for different observers holding 100 objects in memory. The results could support a binary representation of visual objects in memory and are relevant to applied searches in which experts look for any of many items of interest (e.g. medical or airport screening tasks).

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Working memory and target-related distractor effects on visual search

Cited by 15 publications

References 35 publications

The role of object categories in hybrid visual and memory search.

The role of object categories in hybrid visual and memory search.

Automatic guidance of attention during real-world visual search

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