Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Categorization and identification of simultaneous targets.

J Theeuwes1

  • 1TNO Institute for Perception, Soesterberg, Netherlands.

Acta Psychologica
|February 1, 1991
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Novelty processing and memory formation in Parkinson's disease.

Neuropsychologia·2014
Same author

The time course of top-down control on saccade averaging.

Vision research·2014
Same author

A global effect of capture saccades.

Experimental brain research·2011
Same author

Oculomotor capture in ADHD.

Cognitive neuropsychology·2008
Same author

Deficits in visuo-spatial working memory, inhibition and oculomotor control in boys with ADHD and their non-affected brothers.

Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996)·2008
Same author

Visual marking beside the mark: prioritizing selection by abrupt onsets.

Perception & psychophysics·2001
Same journal

Cycling travel vlog characteristics and low-carbon tourism intention: The roles of destination image and environmental self-efficacy.

Acta psychologica·2026
Same journal

Predicting occupational burnout among kindergarten teachers: The mediating role of teacher self-efficacy.

Acta psychologica·2026
Same journal

Immediate and delayed effects of multi-element and points-only gamified mobile apps on EFL learners' engagement in English vocabulary learning.

Acta psychologica·2026
Same journal

Impacts of pride, envy and guilt on leadership potential: The indirect role of PsyCap.

Acta psychologica·2026
Same journal

AI-Augmented marketing decision-making and competitive performance: A resource-based view of capability orchestration.

Acta psychologica·2026
Same journal

A longitudinal study on the intergenerational transmission mechanism of music preference on adolescents' emotion regulation.

Acta psychologica·2026
See all related articles

Visual attention research shows that reaction time increases with display size when identifying targets among distractors. This supports early selection theories, suggesting visual processing is serial, not parallel.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Visual Perception

Background:

  • Theories of visual attention debate whether object identification precedes or follows attentional selection.
  • The category effect, where letter detection time is unaffected by digit presence, has been cited as evidence for late selection, implying parallel identification.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether visual search is characterized by early or late selection mechanisms.
  • To extend previous research by presenting two target letters among varying numbers of nontarget digits.

Main Methods:

  • Participants viewed brief displays containing two target letters and 2, 4, or 6 nontarget digits.
  • A 'same-different' response task was used, requiring participants to judge if the two target letters were identical.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Reaction times were measured in relation to the number of nontarget digits presented.

    • Main Results:

    • Reaction time increased linearly with the number of nontarget digits.
    • This finding contradicts the prediction of late selection theories, which posit display size independence.
    • A control experiment ruled out alternative explanations for the observed display size effect.

    Conclusions:

    • The results provide strong evidence supporting early selection theories of visual attention.
    • Visual search appears to involve a serial process, where processing time increases with the number of items in the display.
    • This challenges previous interpretations of the category effect as solely supporting late selection.