Cuing the dimension of a distractor: verbal cues of target identity also benefit same-dimension distractor singletons

Cuing the identity of an upcoming target speeds its detection. This effect is generally assumed to operate on the level of the target dimension, not of its feature identity. Here, we investigated whether that is the case, in a design in which preparing for a cued dimension would incur costs as well as benefits. Participants searched for targets that could be defined on several dimensions, but were also presented with distractors that were defined on the same dimensions. Cuing the identity of an upcoming target increased the effect of distractors defined on the same dimension as the target. This suggests that cuing a target's identity has effects that operate at least partly at the level of the target dimension.