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The confirmation and prevalence biases in visual search reflect separate underlying processes
Stephen C Walenchok1, Stephen D Goldinger1, Michael C Hout1
1Department of Psychology.
Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance
|February 21, 2020
Summary
People exhibit a confirmation bias in visual search, favoring cued targets. This bias intensifies with high cue-target prevalence but persists even when targets rarely match cues, impacting attention and perception.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Visual Perception
- Attention Studies
Background:
- Previous research indicates a bias towards target-confirming strategies in simple visual search.
- The low-prevalence effect, where targets are rare, is a known phenomenon in visual search.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if the low-prevalence effect modulates the target-confirming bias in visual search.
- To examine how cue-target prevalence influences attentional strategies and perceptual fluency.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments were conducted, manipulating cue-target prevalence (high vs. low).
- Search response times (RTs) and eye-tracking measures were used to index the confirmation bias.
- Participants performed visual search tasks with varying cue reliability.
Main Results:
- High cue-target prevalence amplified the confirmation bias, as evidenced by RTs and eye-tracking data.
- Even in low prevalence conditions, participants showed a bias to examine cue-colored stimuli.
- Participants demonstrated increased fluency in detecting cue-mismatching targets, which were more common.
Conclusions:
- Attention is preferentially guided to confirm the cued target template, especially when prevalence information is high.
- Prevalence learning influences perceptual appreciation, affecting how fluently objects are processed over time.
- The interplay between cue-driven attention and prevalence learning shapes visual search behavior.
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