title: An inter-item similarity model unifying feature and conjunction search.
abstract: We propose a model of visual search to address the hitherto unresolved issue of reconciling serial deployment of attention accounts with inter-item similarity effects. Target-distractor and distractor-distractor similarity were systematically varied in 85 (17x5) set type-size conditions over seven experiments, including univariate feature and bivariate conjunction search. The model, a power (square root) function of dimension-specific target-distractor and distractor-distractor similarity in linear combination with set size, accounted for 98% of the variance on type-size means. It suggests that much of efficient and inefficient search can be unified under a single theory involving item similarity.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568, Japan. steve@ni.aist.go.jp
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.forename: Takatsune
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kumada
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011601:Psychophysics; D011930:Reaction Time; D014796:Visual Perception