title: Matching of visual input to only one item at any one time.
abstract: When we perform a visual search we know what we are looking for and determine where it is. A representation of the object in our working memory, the 'search-template', is compared to the items in the scene until a match is found. So far it is unknown whether observers can search for multiple items at the same time. Here we compare the performance of subjects between a task in which they search for one of two target-items in a stream of visual objects and a task with only a single target. We find that search is effectively limited to one item at a time. This limitation occurs for simple and complex objects and even if the subjects have to look for two features from different domains. We conclude that matching has a fundamental capacity-limitation as the visual input can be matched to only one search-template at a time.
authors.affiliation: Department of Vision and Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Meibergdreef 47, 1105 BA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. rozemarijn.houtkamp@nat.uni-magdeburg.de
authors.forename: Roos
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Houtkamp
authors.forename: Pieter R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Roelfsema
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological