Top-up search and the attentional blink: A two-stage account of the preview effect in search

An inefficient visual search task can be facilitated if half the distractor items are presented as a preview prior to the presentation of the remaining distractor items and target. This benefit in search is termed the preview effect. Recent research has found that a preview effect can still occur if...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kunar, M, Shapiro, K, Humphreys, G
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2006
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author Kunar, M
Shapiro, K
Humphreys, G
author_facet Kunar, M
Shapiro, K
Humphreys, G
author_sort Kunar, M
collection OXFORD
description An inefficient visual search task can be facilitated if half the distractor items are presented as a preview prior to the presentation of the remaining distractor items and target. This benefit in search is termed the preview effect. Recent research has found that a preview effect can still occur if the previewed items disappear before reappearing again just before the search items (the "top-up" procedure). In this paper we investigate the attentional demands of processing during the preview and the top-up periods. Experiment 1 found that if attention is withdrawn from the top-up stage then no preview effect occurs. Likewise if attention is withdrawn from the initial preview period then the preview effect is reduced (Experiment 2). The data suggest that the preview effect is dependent on attention being paid both to the initial display and also to the re-presentation of the old display before the search display appears. The data counter accounts of preview search in terms of automatic attention capture by new items or by inhibition of return. We discuss alternative accounts of the results, and in particular suggest an amalgamation of a temporal grouping and a visual marking account of preview search. © 2006 Psychology Press Ltd.
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spelling oxford-uuid:1e17a485-aff1-4aab-b110-fa508c2c61c32022-03-26T11:14:26ZTop-up search and the attentional blink: A two-stage account of the preview effect in searchJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:1e17a485-aff1-4aab-b110-fa508c2c61c3EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2006Kunar, MShapiro, KHumphreys, GAn inefficient visual search task can be facilitated if half the distractor items are presented as a preview prior to the presentation of the remaining distractor items and target. This benefit in search is termed the preview effect. Recent research has found that a preview effect can still occur if the previewed items disappear before reappearing again just before the search items (the "top-up" procedure). In this paper we investigate the attentional demands of processing during the preview and the top-up periods. Experiment 1 found that if attention is withdrawn from the top-up stage then no preview effect occurs. Likewise if attention is withdrawn from the initial preview period then the preview effect is reduced (Experiment 2). The data suggest that the preview effect is dependent on attention being paid both to the initial display and also to the re-presentation of the old display before the search display appears. The data counter accounts of preview search in terms of automatic attention capture by new items or by inhibition of return. We discuss alternative accounts of the results, and in particular suggest an amalgamation of a temporal grouping and a visual marking account of preview search. © 2006 Psychology Press Ltd.
spellingShingle Kunar, M
Shapiro, K
Humphreys, G
Top-up search and the attentional blink: A two-stage account of the preview effect in search
title Top-up search and the attentional blink: A two-stage account of the preview effect in search
title_full Top-up search and the attentional blink: A two-stage account of the preview effect in search
title_fullStr Top-up search and the attentional blink: A two-stage account of the preview effect in search
title_full_unstemmed Top-up search and the attentional blink: A two-stage account of the preview effect in search
title_short Top-up search and the attentional blink: A two-stage account of the preview effect in search
title_sort top up search and the attentional blink a two stage account of the preview effect in search
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