title: Revisiting preview search at isoluminance: new onsets are not necessary for the preview advantage.
abstract: It has been argued that search performance under preview conditions relies on automatic capture by luminance onsets (Donk & Theeuwes, 2001). We present three experiments in which preview search was examined with both isoluminant and nonisoluminant items (e.g., as defined by luminance onsets). Experiment 1 provided evidence against the automatic capture of attention by onsets. Search benefited when onset previews were followed by new onset stimuli, as compared with a full-set baseline matched for the number of new onsets but in which half the distractors appeared simultaneously at isoluminance. Furthermore, both Experiments 1 and 2 established a preview advantage when isoluminant targets followed onset previews, when compared with appropriate full-set baselines. Experiment 3 replicated this result, while showing that the preview benefit was disrupted by dual-task interference. The data indicate that new onsets are not necessary to generate a preview advantage in search. We discuss the data in terms of search's benefiting from active inhibition of old onset-defined stimuli.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England. j.j.braithwaite@bham.ac.uk
authors.forename: Jason J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Braithwaite
authors.forename: Glyn W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Humphreys
authors.forename: Derrick G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hulleman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008027:Light; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D014796:Visual Perception