Implicit short- and long-term memory direct our gaze in visual search.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Visual Perception

Background:

• Visual attention is influenced by past experiences, including short-term priming (intertrial repetition) and long-term priming (statistical regularities).
• Understanding the distinct mechanisms of these priming effects is crucial for comprehending visual search strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether short-term and long-term priming in visual search rely on dissociable neural mechanisms.
• To determine at which stages of visual search these different forms of priming manifest.

Main Methods:

• Recording eye movements during a visual search task involving two conjunction targets.
• Analyzing the impact of both short-term and long-term priming on search behavior and response times.

Main Results:

• Both long-term and short-term priming effects were observed in visual search.
• Long-term priming effects persisted even when participants were unaware of the underlying bias.
• Both priming types influenced the initial eye movements, directing attention towards targets of the primed color, but did not affect the response phase.

Conclusions:

• Short-term and long-term priming impact the same stage of visual search, specifically the feedforward visual processing.
• Implicit modulation of visual processing by both short- and long-term memory is suggested by the findings.