Categorically defined targets trigger spatiotemporal visual attention.

Categorically defined targets trigger spatiotemporal visual attention.

Transient attention to a visually salient cue enhances processing of a subsequent target in the same spatial location between 50 to 150 ms after cue onset (K. Nakayama & M. Mackeben, 1989). Do stimuli from a categorically defined target set, such as letters or digits, also generate transient attention? Participants reported digit targets among keyboard symbols in a changing array of 8 items. Wh...

Visual search is guided to categorically-defined targets

To determine whether categorical search is guided we had subjects search for teddy bear targets either with a target preview (specific condition) or without (categorical condition). Distractors were random realistic objects. Although subjects searched longer and made more eye movements in the categorical condition, targets were fixated far sooner than was expected by chance. By varying target r...

Spatiotemporal templates for detecting orientation-defined targets.

Using the classification image technique, the present experiments revealed several characteristics of human observers' spatiotemporal templates for the detection of orientation-defined targets. The stimulus consisted of a spatial 5 x 5 array of elements displayed in 5 (Experiments 1 and 2) or 15 (Experiment 3) temporal frames. A target was defined by the first- or the second-order characteristi...

The spatiotemporal profile of visual attention

The effect of target foreknowledge on visual search for categorically separable orientation targets

This research note assesses the role of target foreknowledge in visual search for categorically defined orientation targets, as first described by Wolfe et al. [Wolfe, J. M., Friedman-Hill, S. R., Stewart, M. I., & O'Connell, K. M. (1992). The role of categorisation in visual search for orientation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 18, 34-49]. We compared se...