Efficient search termination without task experience
As a general rule, if it is easy to detect a target in a visual scene, it is also easy to detect its absence. To account for this, models of visual search explain search termination as resulting either from counterfactual reasoning over second-order representations of search efficiency, automatic ex...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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American Psychological Association
2022
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| _version_ | 1824458844079652864 |
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| author | Mazor, M Fleming, SM |
| author_facet | Mazor, M Fleming, SM |
| author_sort | Mazor, M |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | As a general rule, if it is easy to detect a target in a visual scene, it is also easy to detect its absence. To account for this, models of visual search explain search termination as resulting either from counterfactual reasoning over second-order representations of search efficiency, automatic extraction of ensemble statistics of a display, or heuristic adjustment of a search termination strategy based on previous trials. Traditional few-subjects/many-trials lab-based experiments render it impossible to disentangle the unique contribution of these different processes to absence pop-out - the immediate recognition that a feature is missing from a display. In 2 preregistered large-scale online experiments (N1 = 1187; N2 = 887) we show that search termination times are already aligned with target identification times in the very first trials of the experiment before any experience with target presence. Exploratory analysis reveals that explicit metacognitive knowledge about search efficiency is not necessary for efficient search termination. We conclude that for basic stimulus properties, efficient inference about absence is independent of task experience and of explicit metacognitive knowledge about visual search. |
| first_indexed | 2025-02-19T04:32:20Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:e509bbff-18c5-4593-b43d-c05ad22aa85c |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-02-19T04:32:20Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | American Psychological Association |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:e509bbff-18c5-4593-b43d-c05ad22aa85c2025-01-07T14:44:17ZEfficient search termination without task experienceJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:e509bbff-18c5-4593-b43d-c05ad22aa85cEnglishSymplectic ElementsAmerican Psychological Association2022Mazor, MFleming, SMAs a general rule, if it is easy to detect a target in a visual scene, it is also easy to detect its absence. To account for this, models of visual search explain search termination as resulting either from counterfactual reasoning over second-order representations of search efficiency, automatic extraction of ensemble statistics of a display, or heuristic adjustment of a search termination strategy based on previous trials. Traditional few-subjects/many-trials lab-based experiments render it impossible to disentangle the unique contribution of these different processes to absence pop-out - the immediate recognition that a feature is missing from a display. In 2 preregistered large-scale online experiments (N1 = 1187; N2 = 887) we show that search termination times are already aligned with target identification times in the very first trials of the experiment before any experience with target presence. Exploratory analysis reveals that explicit metacognitive knowledge about search efficiency is not necessary for efficient search termination. We conclude that for basic stimulus properties, efficient inference about absence is independent of task experience and of explicit metacognitive knowledge about visual search. |
| spellingShingle | Mazor, M Fleming, SM Efficient search termination without task experience |
| title | Efficient search termination without task experience |
| title_full | Efficient search termination without task experience |
| title_fullStr | Efficient search termination without task experience |
| title_full_unstemmed | Efficient search termination without task experience |
| title_short | Efficient search termination without task experience |
| title_sort | efficient search termination without task experience |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mazorm efficientsearchterminationwithouttaskexperience AT flemingsm efficientsearchterminationwithouttaskexperience |