Neural mechanism of priming in visual search
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Neural mechanism of priming in visual search Jacob A. Westerberg 1
&
Jeffrey D. Schall 1
# The Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2020
Abstract Selective attention affords scrutinizing items in our environment. However, attentional selection changes over time and across space. Empirically, repetition of visual search conditions changes attentional processing. Priming of pop-out is a vivid example. Repeatedly searching for the same pop-out search feature is accomplished with faster response times and fewer errors. We review the psychophysical background of priming of pop-out, focusing on the hypothesis that it arises through changes in visual selective attention. We also describe research done with macaque monkeys to understand the neural mechanisms supporting visual selective attention and priming of pop-out, and survey research on priming of pop-out using noninvasive brain measures with humans. We conclude by hypothesizing three alternative neural mechanisms and highlighting open questions. Keywords Attention: Neural mechanisms . Priming . Visual search
Introduction Our environment is filled with information, some of it is useful to our goals, and some of it is not. Selective attention is the process through which we scrutinize items in our environment (Pashler 1997). Visual search is an especially effective task in investigating how items are selected for directed attention, a process known as attentional selection. Experimental work on selective attention began in the mid-twentieth century (Broadbent, 1958; Cherry, 1953) as did research on visual search (Carpenter, 1948; Ellis, 1947; Mackworth, 1948, 1952). However, not until later were they discussed together. Some of the earliest influential work integrating visual search and selective attention was performed by Charles W. Eriksen, whom this special issue memorializes. Pop-out visual search, perhaps the simplest form of visual search and what we focus on in this review, is characterized by identification of a conspicuous target. That is, pop-out refers to search conditions where an object is noticeably different in one feature relative to the objects surrounding it, as for example is a red berry among green leaves. In the early 1950s, Eriksen performed the first study investigating the speed at * Jacob A. Westerberg [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, Center for Integrative and Cognitive Neuroscience, Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, College of Arts and Sciences, Vanderbilt University, 111 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37240, USA
which items in visual search displays are selected through careful manipulation of the features making up the objects participants searched through (Eriksen, 1952). He found that targets distinguished by single features (i.e., pop-outs) were identified faster than conjunctions of features. In arrays of items comprised of multiple features, a conjunction of unique features (i.e., pop-out in more than one feature) made search faster (Eriksen, 1953) and more accurate (Eriksen & Hake, 1955). Furthermore, in th
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