title: False feedback increases detection of low-prevalence targets in visual search.
abstract: Many critical search tasks, such as airport and medical screening, involve searching for targets that are rarely present. These low-prevalence targets are associated with extremely high miss rates Wolfe, Horowitz, & Kenner (Nature, 435, 439-440, 2005). The inflated miss rates are caused by a criterion shift, likely due to observers attempting to equate the numbers of misses and false alarms. This equalizing strategy results in a neutral criterion at 50 % target prevalence, but leads to a higher proportion of misses for low-prevalence targets. In the present study, we manipulated participants' perceived number of misses through explicit false feedback. As predicted, the participants in the false-feedback condition committed a higher number of false alarms due to a shifted criterion. Importantly, the participants in this condition were also more successful in detecting targets. These results highlight the importance of perceived prevalence in target search tasks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001, USA. jschwark@nmsu.edu
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schwark
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sandry
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Macdonald
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dolgov
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D030141:Feedback, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011930:Reaction Time; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult