title: The Categorical Distinction Between Targets and Distractors Facilitates Tracking in Multiple Identity Tracking Task.
abstract: This study investigates the tracking facilitation effect during categorical distinction between targets and distractors in the Multiple Identity Tracking task. We asked observers to track four targets in a total of eight moving objects, and manipulated categorical distinctions of targets and distractors across four experiments, with different combinations of inter-category and intra-category differences. Results show that tracking performance was significantly better when the targets and distractors were inter-category different, compared to when the targets and distractors were identical or intra-category distinctive. As the inter-category distinction between targets and distractors narrowed, tracking performance improved, but the inter-category facilitation effect decreased. These results may indicate a category-based grouping effect: the observers organized the targets within the same semantic category into one group and made the targets more easily and accurately rediscovered when lost during tracking. Furthermore, the tracking facilitation of categorical distinction diminished when all the objects were inverted. This proved that besides their visual distinctiveness, objects' semantic category information also played an important role during tracking.
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Lab of Applied Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Liuqing
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Lab of Applied Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Beijing Normal UniversityBeijing, China; State Key Lab of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal UniversityBeijing, China; Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal UniversityBeijing, China.
authors.forename: Xuemin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Lab of Applied Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Chuang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lyu
authors.affiliation: eMetric, LLC, San Antonio TX, USA.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
keywords: Multiple Identity Tracking; category-based grouping effect; inter-category distinction; semantic category; visual distinctiveness