title: Positional priming of visual pop-out search is supported by multiple spatial reference frames.
abstract: The present study investigates the representations(s) underlying positional priming of visual 'pop-out' search (Maljkovic and Nakayama, 1996). Three search items (one target and two distractors) were presented at different locations, in invariant (Experiment 1) or random (Experiment 2) cross-trial sequences. By these manipulations it was possible to disentangle retinotopic, spatiotopic, and object-centered priming representations. Two forms of priming were tested: target location facilitation (i.e., faster reaction times - RTs- when the trial n target is presented at a trial n-1 target relative to n-1 blank location) and distractor location inhibition (i.e., slower RTs for n targets presented at n-1 distractor compared to n-1 blank locations). It was found that target locations were coded in positional short-term memory with reference to both spatiotopic and object-centered representations (Experiment 1 vs. 2). In contrast, distractor locations were maintained in an object-centered reference frame (Experiments 1 and 2). We put forward the idea that the uncertainty induced by the experiment manipulation (predictable versus random cross-trial item displacements) modulates the transition from object- to space-based representations in cross-trial memory for target positions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Kadir Has University, Istanbul Turkey.
authors.forename: Ahu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gokce
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich Germany ; School of Psychology, Birkbeck College, University of London, London UK.
authors.forename: Hermann J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Geyer
keywords: positional priming of pop-out; reference frames; spatial maps; visual search; working memory