Target-flanker similarity effects reflect image segmentation not perceptual grouping
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Target-flanker similarity effects reflect image segmentation not perceptual grouping Cathleen M. Moore 1 & Sihan He 1 & Qingzi Zheng 1 & J. Toby Mordkoff 1
# The Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2020
Abstract When responding to the identity of a visual target, nearby stimuli (flankers) that are associated with the same response as the target cause faster and more accurate responding than flankers that are associated with different responses. Because this flankercongruence effect (FCE) decreases with increasing target-flanker separation, it was thought to reflect limited precision of spatial selection mechanisms. Later studies, however, showed that FCEs are larger when the target and flankers are the same color compared to when they are different colors. This led to the group selection hypothesis, which states that flankers are perceptually grouped with the target and are obligatorily selected along with it, regardless of spatial separation. An alternative hypothesis, the image segmentation hypothesis, states that feature differences facilitate the segmentation of visual information into relevant and irrelevant parts, thereby mitigating the limitations of spatial precision of selection mechanisms. We test between these hypotheses using a design in which targets and flankers are grouped or not grouped, while holding feature differences in the stimulus constant. Contrary to earlier results, we found that same-colored flankers do not yield larger FCEs than different-colored flankers when feature differences are held constant. We conclude that similarity effects on the FCE reflect differential support for image segmentation, on which selection depends, rather than the obligatory selection of perceptually grouped flankers and targets. Keywords Attention: Object-based . Attention: selective . Perceptual organization
Introduction Nearly a half century ago, C. W. Eriksen, together with many students and colleagues, published a series of papers investigating properties of spatial selective attention using what is now referred to as the flankers task (e.g., B. A. Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974; Eriksen & Hoffman, 1972, 1973; Eriksen & St. James, 1986; Eriksen & Schultz, 1979; Eriksen & Yeh, 1985). The base observation – the flanker congruence effect (FCE) – is that responses to the identity of target stimuli that are presented at a known location (often fixation) are influenced by the identity of nearby flanking stimuli. Specifically, responses tend to be faster and/or more accurate when flankers are associated with the same response as the target (congruent) compared to when they are associated with different responses (incongruent). This is true even when the target and flankers
* Cathleen M. Moore [email protected] 1
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, G60 PBSB, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
are different stimuli that are associated with the same response, suggesting that the interference impacts responserelated stages of processing in particular. Notably, when the target and flankers are sufficie
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