Incidental visual memory for targets and distractors in visual search

Incidental visual memory for objects in scenes

Three experiments were conducted to investigate the existence of incidentally acquired, long-term, detailed visual memory for objects embedded in previously viewed scenes. Participants performed intentional memorization and incidental visual search learning tasks while viewing photographs of real-world scenes. A visual memory test for previously viewed objects from these scenes then followed. P...

Top-down inhibition of search distractors in parallel visual search.

In three experiments, we examined distractor inhibition in parallel ("pop-out") visual search. Distractor inhibition was measured in terms of reaction time (RT) to a simple luminance increment probe presented, after the search task response, at display locations that either contained a search distractor (on-probe) or were blank (off-probe). When the search stimuli remained in view, the on-probe...

Learned suppression for multiple distractors in visual search

Visual search for colour targets that are or are not linearly separable from distractors

D'Zmura [(1991) Vision Research, 31, 951-966] reported qualitative differences in visual search rates for a target colour in a background of differently coloured distractors depending on their colour configuration in CIE(x,y) space. A target colour that was chromatically mid-way between the distractor colours resulted in steep search slopes. A target off the distractor-distractor line, "popped ...

Efficient visual search for multiple targets among categorical distractors: Effects of distractor–distractor similarity across trials

We trained one group of pigeons to search for members of an artificial category among category-unspecified nonmembers. For another group of pigeons, the roles of the targets and of the distractors were reversed. Experiment 1 found that the latter group showed surprisingly efficient search for multiple nonmembers. Search times in this group were generally faster than those in the former group, r...