Changing your mind: on the contributions of top-down and bottom-up guidance in visual search for feature singletons

J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 2003 Apr;29(2):483-502. doi: 10.1037/0096-1523.29.2.483.

Abstract

Observers, searching for targets among distractor items, guide attention with a mix of top-down information--based on observers' knowledge--and bottom-up information--stimulus-based and largely independent of that knowledge. There are 2 types of top-down guidance: explicit information (e.g., verbal description) and implicit priming by preceding targets (top-down because it implies knowledge of previous searches). Experiments 1 and 2 separate bottom-up and top-down contributions to singleton search. Experiment 3 shows that priming effects are based more strongly on target than on distractor identity. Experiments 4 and 5 show that more difficult search for one type of target (color) can impair search for other types (size, orientation). Experiment 6 shows that priming guides attention and does not just modulate response.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Attention / physiology*
  • Color Perception
  • Comprehension / physiology
  • Cues
  • Discrimination Learning / physiology*
  • Field Dependence-Independence
  • Humans
  • Middle Aged
  • Models, Psychological
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual / physiology*
  • Perceptual Masking / physiology*
  • Psychophysics
  • Visual Perception / physiology*