title: Mirror-image symmetry and search asymmetry: a comparison of their effects on visual search and a possible unifying explanation.
abstract: Visual search may be affected by mirror-image symmetry between target and non-targets and also by switching the roles of target and non-target. Do different attention mechanisms underlie these two phenomena? Can a unifying explanation account for both? We conducted two experiments to decompose processing into component parts, and compared results to competing models' predictions. Mirror-image search was unimpaired after target discrimination had been balanced across search conditions-results were consistent with an unlimited-capacity, decision noise model. Search asymmetry affected higher-level processing, however, resulting in capacity limitations that necessitated serial processing. A unifying explanation can account for these two seemingly unrelated phenomena.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, 30332-0170, USA. etdavis6@earthlink.net
authors.forename: Elizabeth T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Terry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shikano
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Main
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hailston
authors.forename: Rachel K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Michel
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sathian
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011601:Psychophysics; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological