Abstract
Foveal vision loss has been shown to reduce efficient visual search guidance due to contextual cueing by incidentally learned contexts. However, previous studies used artificial (T- among L-shape) search paradigms that prevent the memorization of a target in a semantically meaningful scene. Here, we investigated contextual cueing in real-life scenes that allow explicit memory of target locations in semantically rich scenes. In contrast to the contextual cueing deficits in artificial scenes, contextual cueing in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) did not differ from age-matched normal-sighted controls. We discuss this in the context of visuospatial working-memory demands for which both eye movement control in the presence of central vision loss and memory-guided search may compete. Memory-guided search in semantically rich scenes may depend less on visuospatial working memory than search in abstract displays, potentially explaining intact contextual cueing in the former but not the latter. In a practical sense, our findings may indicate that patients with AMD are less deficient than expected after previous lab experiments. This shows the usefulness of realistic stimuli in experimental clinical research.
Highlights
When we enter an environment, our eye movements can be guided by memory of the same or similar environments that we encountered in the past
We showed that incidental contextual cueing in symbolic displays was severely reduced in a group of patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) [7]
We investigated contextual cueing of visual search in repeated scenes in patients with AMD
Summary
When we enter an environment, our eye movements can be guided by memory of the same or similar environments that we encountered in the past. When you think of your kitchen, you can explicitly tell where the refrigerator is and in which cupboard you will find a coffee mug. When participants were asked to find a target in a realistic scene, their response time was dramatically reduced when scenes—with the target placed at the same location—were repeated [1]. Participants were explicitly aware of the location of targets in the scenes when tested at the end of the experiment. Search facilitation in repeated displays was observed when the “scene” was a symbolic display, typically consisting of a T-shaped target among L-shaped distractors in a randomly generated configuration without any semantic meaning.
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