History matters: the preview benefit in search is not onset capture.

Visual search for a conjunction target is made easier when distractor items are temporally segregated over time to produce two separate old and new groups (the new group containing the target item). The benefit of presenting half the distractors first is known as the preview effect. Recently some re...

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Main Authors: Kunar, M, Humphreys, G, Smith, K
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2003
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author Kunar, M
Humphreys, G
Smith, K
author_facet Kunar, M
Humphreys, G
Smith, K
author_sort Kunar, M
collection OXFORD
description Visual search for a conjunction target is made easier when distractor items are temporally segregated over time to produce two separate old and new groups (the new group containing the target item). The benefit of presenting half the distractors first is known as the preview effect. Recently some researchers have argued that the preview effect occurs because new stimuli capture attention. This account was tested in the present study by using a novel "top-up" condition that exploits the fact that when previews appear only briefly before the search display, there is minimal preview benefit. We show that effects of a brief preview can be "topped up" by an earlier exposure of the same items, even when the preview disappears between its first and second presentations. This top-up effect demonstrates that the history of the old stimuli is important for the preview benefit, contrary to the account favoring onset capture. We discuss alternative accounts of how the preview benefit arises.
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spelling oxford-uuid:9f74915a-e291-4a94-8ff8-c2873f3cc2dd2022-03-27T00:57:56ZHistory matters: the preview benefit in search is not onset capture.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:9f74915a-e291-4a94-8ff8-c2873f3cc2ddEnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2003Kunar, MHumphreys, GSmith, KVisual search for a conjunction target is made easier when distractor items are temporally segregated over time to produce two separate old and new groups (the new group containing the target item). The benefit of presenting half the distractors first is known as the preview effect. Recently some researchers have argued that the preview effect occurs because new stimuli capture attention. This account was tested in the present study by using a novel "top-up" condition that exploits the fact that when previews appear only briefly before the search display, there is minimal preview benefit. We show that effects of a brief preview can be "topped up" by an earlier exposure of the same items, even when the preview disappears between its first and second presentations. This top-up effect demonstrates that the history of the old stimuli is important for the preview benefit, contrary to the account favoring onset capture. We discuss alternative accounts of how the preview benefit arises.
spellingShingle Kunar, M
Humphreys, G
Smith, K
History matters: the preview benefit in search is not onset capture.
title History matters: the preview benefit in search is not onset capture.
title_full History matters: the preview benefit in search is not onset capture.
title_fullStr History matters: the preview benefit in search is not onset capture.
title_full_unstemmed History matters: the preview benefit in search is not onset capture.
title_short History matters: the preview benefit in search is not onset capture.
title_sort history matters the preview benefit in search is not onset capture
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