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Probability cueing of singleton-distractor locations in visual search: priority-map-or dimension-based inhibition?

Zhang, B. and Allenmark, F. and Liesefeld, H.R. and Shi, Z. and Muller, Hermann (2019) Probability cueing of singleton-distractor locations in visual search: priority-map-or dimension-based inhibition? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 45 (9), pp. 1146-1163. ISSN 0096-1523.

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Abstract

Observers can learn the likely locations of salient distractors in visual search, reducing their potential to cause interference. While there is agreement that this involves positional suppression of the likely distractor location(s), it is contentious at which stage the suppression operates: the search-guiding priority map, which integrates feature-contrast signals (e.g., generated by a red amongst green or a diamond amongst circular items) across dimensions, or the distractor-defining dimension. On the latter, dimension-based account (Sauter et al., 2018), processing of, say, a shape-defined target should be unaffected by distractor suppression when the distractor is defined by color, because in this case only color signals would be suppressed. At odds with this, Wang & Theeuwes (2018a) found slowed processing of the target when it appeared at the likely (vs. an unlikely) distractor location, consistent with priority-map-based suppression. Adopting their paradigm, the present study replicated this target location effect. Crucially, however, changing the paradigm by making the target appear as likely at the frequent as at any of the rare distractor locations and making the distractor/non-distractor color assignment consistent abolished the target location effect, without impacting the reduced interference for distractors at the frequent location. These findings support a flexible locus of spatial distractor suppression – priority-map- or dimension-based – depending on the prominence of distractor ‘cues’ provided by the paradigm.

Metadata

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: ©American Psychological Association 201x. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. Please do not copy or cite without author's permission. The final article is available, upon publication, at the DOI cited above.
Keyword(s) / Subject(s): search guidance, attentional capture, statistical (distractor location) learning, distractor suppression
School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
Depositing User: Hermann Muller
Date Deposited: 21 May 2019 12:45
Last Modified: 27 Jul 2025 10:40
URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/27062

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