Abstract
We used the Multi-Item Localisation (MILO) task to examine search through two sequences. In Sequential blocks of trials, six letters and six digits were touched in order. In Mixed blocks, participants alternated between letters and digits. These conditions mimic the A and B variants of the Trail Making Test (TMT). In both block types, targets either vanished or remained visible after being touched. There were two key findings. First, in Mixed blocks, reaction times exhibited a saw-tooth pattern, suggesting search for successive pairs of targets. Second, reaction time patterns for vanish and remain conditions were identical in Sequential blocks—indicating that participants could ignore past targets—but diverged in Mixed blocks. This suggests a breakdown of inhibitory tagging. These findings may help explain the elevated completion times observed in TMT-B, relative to TMT-A.
Highlights
We introduced a mobile app version of the Multi-Item Localisation (MILO) task (Thornton & Horowitz, 2020)
Our primary focus is on further understanding the nature of inhibitory tagging mechanisms thought to operate during MILO and related search tasks (e.g., Klein & MacInnes, 1999; Wang & Klein, 2010)
We begin by briefly introducing the Trail Making Test (TMT) and the MILO task before presenting our new experimental findings
Summary
We introduced a mobile app version of the Multi-Item Localisation (MILO) task (Thornton & Horowitz, 2020). We have used the MILO task to show that when locating a given item in a sequence, both retrospective (i.e., where you have been) and prospective (i.e., where you need to go ) context within a trial affects search performance (Horowitz & Thornton, 2008; Thornton & Horowitz, 2004). The goal of this study was to examine what happens to these context effects when a trial contains two interleaved sequences. Such an increase in task demands is an important component of the widely used Trail Making Test (TMT), where interleaving sequences is known to systematically increase overall completion time (Bowie & Harvey, 2006; Lange et al, 2005; Rabin et al, 2007; Reitan, 1958; Salthouse, 2011). We begin by briefly introducing the TMT and the MILO task before presenting our new experimental findings
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