title: Curvature is a basic feature for visual search tasks.
abstract: A curved target can be found efficiently among straight distractors in a visual search task. This could reflect the status of curvature as a basic feature for visual search. Alternatively, curvature could be detected as a locus of high variation in orientation. In a series of experiments it is shown that efficient search for curvature is possible even if local variation in orientation is eliminated as a cue. This suggests that curvature is part of the set of basic features for visual search and that this set is derived relatively late in the course of visual processing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Wolfe
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yee
authors.forename: S R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Friedman-Hill
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D009949:Orientation; D011601:Psychophysics; D011930:Reaction Time