title: Spatial cueing and the relation between the accuracy of "where" and "what" decisions in visual search.
abstract: To study the processes underlying selective attention in visual search, the relation between the accuracy of "where" (location) and "what" (same/different orientation matching) decisions was analysed under various display conditions. Target-non-target discriminability was varied by contrasting single and multiple element displays; further, attention was directly manipulated by spatial cueing. In Experiment 1, analyses for both single and multiple displays showed that localization accuracy remained above chance when same/different matching failed; the inverse also obtained. It seems that accurate matching is not a prerequisite for target localization, nor is accurate localization a prerequisite for same/different matching. However, localization is a prerequisite for the accurate recognition of target orientation (Experiment 2). In this case, it seems that features critical for localization "call" attention to a particular candidate location. This facilitates further (shape) analysis of the stimulus that is found there. This orienting process is by-passed if attention is cued to the location in advance.
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Rabbitt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D003657:Decision Making; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010470:Perceptual Masking