Facilitation of visual search at new positions: a behavioral and ERP study of new object capture

Visual search was studied in two consecutive displays. Display 1 items changed identity whilst retaining their positions when the additional items appeared in Display 2. In the New condition, the target appeared at one of the new positions, whereas in the Old condition, the target appeared at one of the old positions. Responses were faster and accuracy increased in the New condition. Event-related brain potentials revealed an Old-New difference 400 ms after Display 2 onset for the smaller set size, suggesting that subjects had a holistic impression that the target was absent at a new position. A posteriorly distributed processing difference between both conditions was manifest at around 1200 ms, suggesting a bias for search at new positions.