How location-based organization affects the extent of contextual cueing

Contextual cueing describes the phenomenon where repeated associations between stimuli facilitate visual search performance. For example, previous research has demonstrated that when 12 repeated stimuli are organized into four color-based clusters, probing only the repeated cluster containing the target alongside nine randomly generated stimuli can elicit similar contextual cueing as probing all the stimuli. This suggests that feature-based attention, when directed by color, strengthens the associations between the target and distractors within the same cluster, making it the primary contributor to contextual cueing. However, the influence of location-based organization on contextual cueing is less clear. We hypothesized that when 12 repeated stimuli are evenly divided into four quadrants, location-based attention similarly strengthens the associations between the target and distractors within the same quadrant. Consequently, probing only the target-containing quadrant may produce similar contextual cueing to probing the entire configuration, whereas probing only three repeated stimuli without quadrant organization would not. Experiments 1 and 2 confirmed this hypothesis. To further investigate the effect of location-based attention, Experiment 3 manipulated the number of stimuli attended to simultaneously (i.e., the attentional scope). We hypothesized that a larger attentional scope enhances the associations between stimuli, thereby facilitating contextual cueing. The results support this hypothesis, indicating that a broader attentional scope led to more pronounced contextual cueing. In summary, the present study demonstrates that the extent of contextual cueing depends on location-based organization.