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    Distractor-interference reduction is dimensionally constrained

    Liesefeld, H.R. and Liesefeld, A.M. and Muller, Hermann (2019) Distractor-interference reduction is dimensionally constrained. Visual Cognition 27 (3-4), pp. 247-259. ISSN 1350-6285.

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    Abstract

    ABSTRACTThe dimension-weighting account predicts that if observers search for a target standing out from the background in a particular dimension, they cannot readily ignore a distractor standing out in the same dimension. This prediction is tested here by asking two groups of observers to search for an orientation target or a luminance target, respectively, and presenting an additional distractor defined in either the respectively same dimension or the other dimension. Notably, in this cross-over design, the physically identical distractors served both as same- and different-dimension distractors, depending on target condition. While same-dimension distractors gave rise to massive interference, different-dimension distractors caused much weaker (though still substantial) interference. This result is most readily explained by the dimension-weighting account: different-dimension distractors are considerably down-weighted but not fully suppressed. Furthermore, same- and different dimension distractors delayed response times even when considering only the fastest (down to 2.5%) of trials, indicating that interference is exerted consistently on each trial, rather than probabilistically on some trials. Our results put strong constraints on models of distractor handling in visual search.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis, available online at the link above.
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): Attentional capture, distractor handling, dimension-weighting account, additional-singleton task, visual search
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
    Depositing User: Hermann Muller
    Date Deposited: 21 May 2019 10:35
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:50
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/27079

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