scholarly journals There is more to contextual cuing than meets the eye: Improving visual search without attentional guidance toward predictable target locations.

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-120
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Vadillo ◽  
Tamara Giménez-Fernández ◽  
Tom Beesley ◽  
David R. Shanks ◽  
David Luque
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Contextual Cuing ◽  
Attentional Guidance ◽  
Target Locations

scholarly journals There is more to contextual cuing than meets the eye: Improving visual search without attentional guidance towards predictable target locations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Vadillo ◽  
Tamara Giménez-Fernández ◽  
Tom Beesley ◽  
David Shanks ◽  
David Luque
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Search Display ◽  
Repeated Exposure ◽  
Visual Scene ◽  
Contextual Cuing ◽  
Attentional Guidance ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Usual Location ◽  
Target Locations

It is usually easier to find objects in a visual scene as we gain familiarity with it. Two decades of research on contextual cuing of visual search show that repeated exposure to a search display can facilitate the detection of targets that appear at predictable locations in that display. Typical accounts for this effect attribute an essential role to learned associations between the target and other stimuli in the search display. These associations improve visual search either by driving attention towards the usual location of the target or by facilitating its recognition. Contrary to this view, we show that a robust contextual cuing effect can also be observed when repeated search displays do not allow the location of the target to be predicted. These results suggest that, in addition to the mechanisms already explored by previous research, participants learn to ignore the locations usually occupied by distractors, which in turn facilitates the detection of targets even when they appear in unpredictable locations.

Local Contextual Cuing in Visual Search

2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Hoffmann ◽  
Albrecht Sebald
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Spatial Relations ◽  
Contextual Cuing ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Local Topography ◽  
Target Locations

Abstract. Previous research has indicated that covariations between the global layout of search displays and target locations result in contextual cuing: the global context guides attention to probable target locations. The present experiments extend these findings by showing that local redundancies also facilitate visual search. Participants searched for randomly located targets in invariant homogenous displays, i.e., the global context provided information neither about the location nor about the identity of the target. The only redundancy referred to spatial relations between the targets and certain distractors: Two of the distractors were frequently presented next to the targets. In four of five experiments, targets with frequent flankers were detected faster than targets with rare flankers. The data suggest that this local contextual cuing does not depend on awareness of the redundant local topography but needs the redundantly related stimuli to be attended to.

scholarly journals Automatic Guidance (and Misguidance) of Visuospatial Attention by Acquired Scene Memory: Evidence From an N1pc Polarity Reversal

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. 1531-1543
Author(s):  
Artyom Zinchenko ◽  
Markus Conci ◽  
Thomas Töllner ◽  
Hermann J. Müller ◽  
Thomas Geyer
Keyword(s):  
Target Location ◽  
Fixed Position ◽  
Contextual Cuing ◽  
Attentional Guidance ◽  
Initial Learning ◽  
Early Posterior Negativity ◽  
Amplitude Increase ◽  
Automatic Guidance ◽  
Original Target ◽  
Electroencephalogram Eeg

Visual search is facilitated when the target is repeatedly encountered at a fixed position within an invariant (vs. randomly variable) distractor layout—that is, when the layout is learned and guides attention to the target, a phenomenon known as contextual cuing. Subsequently changing the target location within a learned layout abolishes contextual cuing, which is difficult to relearn. Here, we used lateralized event-related electroencephalogram (EEG) potentials to explore memory-based attentional guidance ( N = 16). The results revealed reliable contextual cuing during initial learning and an associated EEG-amplitude increase for repeated layouts in attention-related components, starting with an early posterior negativity (N1pc, 80–180 ms). When the target was relocated to the opposite hemifield following learning, contextual cuing was effectively abolished, and the N1pc was reversed in polarity (indicative of persistent misguidance of attention to the original target location). Thus, once learned, repeated layouts trigger attentional-priority signals from memory that proactively interfere with contextual relearning after target relocation.

scholarly journals Working-memory capacity predicts the executive control of visual search among distractors: The influences of sustained and selective attention

2009 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. 1430-1454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley J. Poole ◽  
Michael J. Kane
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Search Tasks ◽  
Span Tasks ◽  
Target Locations

Variation in working-memory capacity (WMC) predicts individual differences in only some attention-control capabilities. Whereas higher WMC subjects outperform lower WMC subjects in tasks requiring the restraint of prepotent but inappropriate responses, and the constraint of attentional focus to target stimuli against distractors, they do not differ in prototypical visual-search tasks, even those that yield steep search slopes and engender top-down control. The present three experiments tested whether WMC, as measured by complex memory span tasks, would predict search latencies when the 1–8 target locations to be searched appeared alone, versus appearing among distractor locations to be ignored, with the latter requiring selective attentional focus. Subjects viewed target-location cues and then fixated on those locations over either long (1,500–1,550 ms) or short (300 ms) delays. Higher WMC subjects identified targets faster than did lower WMC subjects only in the presence of distractors and only over long fixation delays. WMC thus appears to affect subjects’ ability to maintain a constrained attentional focus over time.

scholarly journals Overt attention in contextual cuing of visual search is driven by the attentional set, but not by the predictiveness of distractors.

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 707-721 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Beesley ◽  
Gunadi Hanafi ◽  
Miguel A. Vadillo ◽  
David. R. Shanks ◽  
Evan J. Livesey
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Contextual Cuing ◽  
Attentional Set ◽  
Overt Attention

scholarly journals Development of attentional guidance based on memory for infants in visual search

2010 ◽  
Vol 74 (0) ◽  
pp. 2EV061-2EV061
Author(s):  
Yuko HIBI ◽  
Takatsune KUMADA ◽  
So KANAZAWA ◽  
Masami K. YAMAGUCHI
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Attentional Guidance
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