Color search and visual field segregation
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Updated: Nov 2, 2026

Visualizing Visual Adaptation
Published on: April 24, 2017
1Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine 92697, USA. mdzmura@uci.edu
Abstract:
Visual search for targets that combine color and shape features that are shared by distracting items can be conducted spatially in parallel. Experimental results show that parallel search for color/shape conjunctions is possible when the shapes chosen let observers segregate the spatially interspersed items into figure and ground and when, within the figure, the target differs from other items by a distinguishing color feature. Results of experiments that manipulate stimulus color suggest that adaptive mechanisms of color discrimination are used to detect targets within such a figure.
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