Grouping effects on spatial attention in visual search.
In visual search tasks, spatial attention selects the locations containing a target or a distractor with one of the target's features, implying that spatial attention is driven by target features (M.-S. Kim & K. R. Cave, 1995). The authors measured the effects of location-based grouping processes in visual search. In searches for a color-shape combination (conjunction search), spatial probes indicated that a cluster of same-color or same-shape elements surrounding the target were grouped and selected together. However, in searches for a shape target (feature search), evidence for grouping by an irrelevant feature dimension was weaker or nonexistent. Grouping processes aided search for a visual target by selecting groups of locations that shared a common feature, although there was little or no grouping by an irrelevant feature when the target was defined by a unique salient feature.
Kim
M S
MS
Department of Psychology, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. mskim@psylab.yonsei.ac.kr
Cave
K R
KR
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes; D014796:Visual Perception