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Updated: Aug 13, 2026

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior
Published on: April 16, 2014
Effects of pictorially-defined surfaces on visual search
Hiromi Morita1, Takatsune Kumada
1Visual Cognition Group, Human Science and Biomedical Engineering, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba Central 6, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8566, Japan. morita@slis.tsukuba.ac.jp
Abstract:
Three experiments of visual search for a cube (for a square pillar in Experiment 3) with an odd conjunction of orientation of faces and color (a cube with a red top face and a green right face among cubes with a green top face and a red right face, for example) showed that the search is made more efficient by arranging cubes (or square pillars) so that their top faces lie in a horizontal surface defined by pictorial cues. This effect shows the same asymmetry as that of the surface defined by the disparity cue did [Perception and Psychophysics, 62 (2000) 540], implying that the effect is independent of the three-dimensional cue and the global surface structure influences the control of attention during the search.
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