Abstract
Visual attention is guided by the history of selections in previous trials, an effect usually referred to as intertrial priming. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether such priming in visual search is due to a strengthening of the target signal, or the suppression of the distractor signal. In two experiments, we examined the deviation of saccade endpoints in situations in which the target and distractors were presented in relative close proximity. We found both negative and positive priming, irrespective of whether the repeating feature was relevant or irrelevant. This finding is in contrast to previous results with this paradigm, based on which we concluded that visual priming is strictly the result of boosting perceptual target signals. Based on the differences between these experiments, we conclude that the number of distractors is essential in observing negative priming. We propose that negative priming is solely observed when multiple distractors result in either strong inhibition of distractor features, or strong adaptation to them. Whereas positive priming seems to be a robust mechanism, negative priming is only present if there are multiple distractors.
Highlights
Visual attention is guided by top-down and bottom-up factors, such as task demands or visual saliency, and by the history of previous selections
Attention is deployed with higher likelihood to stimuli that share features with those previously attended to. This is most evident from the effects of recent search trials on the current one: Finding a target on a current trial is more easy when it is similar to the target on previous trials, compared to when the target changed identity (Kristjánsson, Wang & Nakayama, 2002; Maljkovic & Nakayama, 1994, 2000; Meeter & Van der Stigchel, 2013)
When the target and the distractor both had the same color as on the previous trial ('Both repeated'), saccadic reaction times were lower and the saccade endpoint shifted towards the target
Summary
Visual attention is guided by top-down and bottom-up factors, such as task demands or visual saliency, and by the history of previous selections. Attention is deployed with higher likelihood to stimuli that share features with those previously attended to. In visual search, this is most evident from the effects of recent search trials on the current one: Finding a target on a current trial is more easy when it is similar to the target on previous trials, compared to when the target changed identity (Kristjánsson, Wang & Nakayama, 2002; Maljkovic & Nakayama, 1994, 2000; Meeter & Van der Stigchel, 2013).
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