title: Out of sight, out of mind: Matching bias underlies confirmatory visual search.
abstract: Confirmation bias has recently been reported in visual search, where observers who were given a perceptual rule to test (e.g. "Is the p on a red circle?") search stimuli that could confirm the rule stimuli preferentially (Rajsic, Wilson, & Pratt, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 41(5), 1353-1364, 2015). In this study, we compared the ability of concrete and abstract visual templates to guide attention using the visual confirmation bias. Experiment 1 showed that confirmatory search tendencies do not result from simple low-level priming, as they occurred when color templates were verbally communicated. Experiment 2 showed that confirmation bias did not occur when targets needed to be reported as possessing or not possessing the absence of a feature (i.e., reporting whether a target was on a nonred circle). Experiment 3 showed that confirmatory search also did not occur when search prompts referred to a set of visually heterogenous features (i.e., reporting whether a target on a colorful circle, regardless of the color). Together, these results show that the confirmation bias likely results from a matching heuristic, such that visual codes involved in representing the search goal prioritize stimuli possessing these features.
authors.affiliation: University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. jason.rajsic@mail.utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rajsic
authors.affiliation: University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: J Eric T
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.affiliation: University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Jay
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pratt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D015982:Bias; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Attention; Cognitive and attentional control; Search; Selective