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Prioritization in visual search: visual marking is not dependent on a mnemonic search
Christian N L Olivers1, Glyn W Humphreys, Dietmar Heinke
1Behavioural Brain Sciences, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, England. g.w.humphreys@bham.ac.uk
Perception & Psychophysics
|July 23, 2002
Summary
Visual marking (VM) prevents searching old items when new stimuli appear. This study shows VM is distinct from inhibition of return, offering efficient visual search.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Visual Perception
- Attention
Background:
- Visual marking (VM) is the ability to exclude previously seen items from visual search when new stimuli are presented.
- The underlying mechanism of VM is debated, with possibilities including attentional scanning, inhibition of return, or memory representations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether visual marking relies on attentional scanning of old items.
- To determine if VM involves inhibition of return or memory-based processes.
- To differentiate the mechanism of VM from other search-related processes.
Main Methods:
- Four experiments compared performance in a double-search (DS) condition versus a visual marking (VM) condition.
- In DS, participants searched two sets sequentially, with old items remaining visible.
- In VM, participants expected the target only in the second (new) set.
Main Results:
- Selection of new items was impaired in the DS condition compared to exclusive search.
- Selection of new items in the VM condition was efficient, matching exclusive search performance.
- These findings persisted after controlling for set difficulty, task switching, and response generation.
Conclusions:
- The mechanism of visual marking is distinct from mnemonic or serial inhibition of return processes in search.
- VM appears to be a separate mechanism that facilitates efficient visual search by excluding old items.
- Potential links to more global and flexible inhibition of return processes are discussed.