Consequences of display changes during interrupted visual search: rapid resumption is target specific.
Visual search can be resumed more rapidly following a brief interruption to an old display than it can be initiated on a new display, pointing to a critical role for memory in search (Lleras, Rensink, & Enns, 2005). Here, we examine how this rapid resumption is affected by changes made to the display during the interruption of search. Rapid resumption was found to depend on the prior presentation of the target, not merely the distractor items (Experiment 1), and was unaffected by the relocation of all distractor items (Experiment 2). Further, whereas changes to response-irrelevant features of the target did not eliminate rapid resumption (Experiment 3), changes to response-relevant features did (Experiment 4). These results point to the target specificity of rapid resumption and are consistent with reentrant theories of visual awareness.
Lleras
Alejandro
A
Department of Psychology and Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61820, USA. alleras@uiuc.edu
Rensink
Ronald A
RA
Enns
James T
JT
D001364:Awareness; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D011930:Reaction Time; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception