title: Training and transfer of training in rapid visual search for camouflaged targets.
abstract: Previous examinations of search under camouflage conditions have reported that performance improves with training and that training can engender near perfect transfer to similar, but novel camouflage-type displays [1]. What remains unclear, however, are the cognitive mechanisms underlying these training improvements and transfer benefits. On the one hand, improvements and transfer benefits might be associated with higher-level overt strategy shifts, such as through the restriction of eye movements to target-likely (background) display regions. On the other hand, improvements and benefits might be related to the tuning of lower-level perceptual processes, such as figure-ground segregation. To decouple these competing possibilities we had one group of participants train on camouflage search displays and a control group train on non-camouflage displays. Critically, search displays were rapidly presented, precluding eye movements. Before and following training, all participants completed transfer sessions in which they searched novel displays. We found that search performance on camouflage displays improved with training. Furthermore, participants who trained on camouflage displays suffered no performance costs when searching novel displays following training. Our findings suggest that training to break camouflage is related to the tuning of perceptual mechanisms and not strategic shifts in overt attention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, United States of America.
authors.forename: Mark B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Neider
authors.affiliation: Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Cher Wee
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Ang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America.
authors.forename: Michelle W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Voss
authors.affiliation: Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Carbonari
authors.affiliation: Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Arthur F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Kramer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014163:Transfer, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult