Guidance Of Search Research Articles

Editorial: Guidance of search by long-term and working memory

Editorial: Guidance of search by long-term and working memory

Distraction from long-term memory in visual search: Acquired procedural and template-based memory interfere with contextual cueing after target re-location

ABSTRACT Participants can learn to faster detect targets embedded in repeatedly encountered spatial arrangements of distractors – termed the “contextual cueing” (CC) effect. However, cueing is severely compromised following target relocation in an otherwise unchanged distractor arrangement. Previous research demonstrated that this re-location cost is due to persistent misguidance of search towards the original location. Since CC reflects top-down guidance of contextual memory, this misguidance is an instance of a “distraction” effect that operates from acquired memory, rather than being driven by salient but irrelevant stimuli in the display. While traditional accounts of CC emphasize the acquisition of search-guiding memory “templates” specific to particular displays, contextual learning also tunes attentional (oculomotor) scanning routines to the overall statistics of the display arrangements, yielding a context-unspecific LT “proceduralization” of search. Using reaction-time and oculomotor-scanning measures, we confirmed both mechanisms to contribute to initial contextual learning as well as the “distraction” effect produced by relocating the targets of repeated displays. We suspect that guidance and misguidance of search by repeated contexts involve two complementary LT mechanisms: procedural optimization of broad, i.e., display-generic, scanning routines, and learning of where to expect the target in specific repeated-context displays.

The Preparatory Activation of Guidance Templates for Visual Search and of Target Templates in Non-Search Tasks.

Representations of task-relevant object attributes (attentional templates) control the adaptive selectivity of visual processing. Previous studies have demonstrated that templates involved in the guidance of attention during visual search are activated in a preparatory fashion prior to the arrival of visual search displays. The current study investigated whether such proactive mechanisms are also triggered in non-search tasks, where attentional templates do not mediate the guidance of attention towards targets amongst distractors but are still necessary for subsequent target recognition processes. Participants either searched for colour-defined targets among multiple distractors or performed two other non-search tasks where imperative stimuli appeared without competing distractors (a colour-based Go/NoGo task, and a shape discrimination task where target colour was constant and could thus be ignored). Preparatory activation of colour-selective templates was tracked by measuring N2pc components (markers of attention allocation) to task-irrelevant colour singleton probes flashed every 200 ms during the interval between target displays. As expected, N2pcs were triggered by target-coloured probes in the search task, indicating that a corresponding guidance template was triggered proactively. Critically, clear probe N2pcs were also observed in the Go/NoGo task, and even in the shape discrimination task in an attenuated fashion. These findings demonstrate that the preparatory activation of feature-selective attentional task settings is not uniquely associated with the guidance of visual search but is also present in other types of visual selection tasks where guidance is not required.

Explaining the guidance of search for real-world objects using quantitative similarity

Explaining the guidance of search for real-world objects using quantitative similarity

THE IMPACT OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEMS ON DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: A MESO LEVEL ANALYSIS

This work aims to study the impact of meso-level variables of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) on digital transformation. Statistical analysis was used to evaluate the research hypotheses, based on multiple linear regression, with a sample of 172 organisations. The results show that actors from the meso dimension of EEs positively impact digital transformation through knowledge, discoveries, guidance, co-opetition, co-creation and stimulation of technological search. The contributions of this study are in bringing a more refined perspective of the incentives of society actors to digital transformation, besides awakening to their importance in organisational processes and showing that associations for the satisfaction of own interests can culminate in common benefits.

Technology diffusion and green transition support in the brick sector of Bangladesh: Why transformational change is still elusive

The government of Bangladesh keeps using the policy instrument of technology mandate to achieve technology substitution in the brick industry. The target of achieving 100% technology substitution by 2013 is yet to be achieved. Using historical data this paper models diffusion trajectory of the substitute technologies and found that 100% substitution is unlikely by 2035 although the action is prioritized in the updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). Several development agencies have implemented projects aimed at cleaner technology diffusion in the sector over the last twenty years. Using established definitions of functions from innovation system literature, actions of all development partners in the sector were mapped against the functions. Donor projects were found to be more involved under Guidance of Search and Creation of Legitimacy functions. The implications of this research can inform design of future donor supported projects piloting climate technologies with insights from diffusion theories and innovation system.

Eye movements reveal the contributions of early and late processes of enhancement and suppression to the guidance of visual search

In visual search attention can be directed towards items matching top-down goals, but this must compete with factors such as salience that can capture attention. However, under some circumstances it appears that attention can avoid known distractor features. Chang and Egeth (Psychological Science, 30 (12), 1724–1732, 2019) found that such inhibitory effects reflect a combination of distractor-feature suppression and target-feature enhancement. In the present study (N = 48), we extend these findings by revealing that suppression and enhancement effects guide overt attention. On search trials (75% of trials) participants searched for a diamond shape among several other shapes. On half of the search trials all objects were the same colour (e.g., green) and on the other half of the search trials one of the non-target shapes appeared in a different colour (e.g., red). On interleaved probe trials (25% of trials), subjects were presented with four ovals. One of the ovals was in either the colour of the target or the colour of the distractor from the search trials. The other three ovals were on neutral colours. Critically, we found that attention was overtly captured by target colours and avoided distractor colours when they were viewed in a background of neutral colours. In addition, we provided a time course of attentional control. Within visual search tasks we observed inhibition aiding early attentional effects, indexed by the time it took gaze to first reach the target, as well as later decision-making processes indexed by the time for a decision to be made once the target as found.

Guidance of visual search by negative attentional templates depends on task demands.

Visual search for a target is faster when its features are known before the search display appears, but there is an ongoing discussion about whether knowledge of nontarget features has a similar effect. Stored target or nontarget features used to guide visual search are referred to as positive or negative attentional templates, respectively. We suggest that the inconsistent findings concerning negative attentional templates may arise from 2 methodological choices in past research. The activation of negative attentional templates was never directly assessed and the use of negative attentional templates by the participant was optional. We addressed these issues in the contingent capture paradigm, which provides a marker for the activation of attentional templates in conditions where attentional templates are optional or mandatory. If an attentional template for a color is activated, cuing effects are larger for spatial cues in a matching color than for spatial cues in a nonmatching color. The question is whether the activation of negative attentional templates results in a similar difference between matching and nonmatching colors. We found that negative attentional templates were not activated when the target could be located based on its saliency (singleton search) and the use of the negative attentional template was optional. In contrast, when the negative attentional template was necessary to locate the target (feature search), we found the expected difference between matching and nonmatching spatial cues. Thus, the activation of negative attentional templates depends on task demands. In contrast, positive attentional templates were activated irrespective of task demands. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Real-world object categories and scene contexts conjointly structure statistical learning for the guidance of visual search.

We examined how object categories and scene contexts act in conjunction to structure the acquisition and use of statistical regularities to guide visual search. In an exposure session, participants viewed five object exemplars in each of two colors in each of 42 real-world categories. Objects were presented individually against scene context backgrounds. Exemplars within a category were presented with different contexts as a function of color (e.g., the five red staplers were presented with a classroom scene, and the five blue staplers with an office scene). Participants then completed a visual search task, in which they searched for novel exemplars matching a category label cue among arrays of eight objects superimposed over a scene background. In the context-match condition, the color of the target exemplar was consistent with the color associated with that combination of category and scene context from the exposure phase (e.g., a red stapler in a classroom scene). In the context-mismatch condition, the color of the target was not consistent with that association (e.g., a red stapler in an office scene). In two experiments, search response time was reliably lower in the context-match than in the context-mismatch condition, demonstrating that the learning of category-specific color regularities was itself structured by scene context. The results indicate that categorical templates retrieved from long-term memory are biased toward the properties of recent exemplars and that this learning is organized in a scene-specific manner.

Supplemental Material for Guidance of Visual Search by Negative Attentional Templates Depends on Task Demands

Supplemental Material for Guidance of Visual Search by Negative Attentional Templates Depends on Task Demands

Categorical cuing: Object categories structure the acquisition of statistical regularities to guide visual search.

Recent statistical regularities have been demonstrated to influence visual search across a wide variety of learning mechanisms and search features. To function in the guidance of real-world search, however, such learning must be contingent on the context in which the search occurs and the object that is the target of search. The former has been studied extensively under the rubric of contextual cuing. Here, we examined, for the first time, categorical cuing: The role of object categories in structuring the acquisition of statistical regularities used to guide visual search. After an exposure session in which participants viewed six exemplars with the same general color in each of 40 different real-world categories, they completed a categorical search task, in which they searched for any member of a category based on a label cue. Targets that matched recent within-category regularities were found faster than targets that did not (Experiment 1). Such categorical cuing was also found to span multiple recent colors within a category (Experiment 2). It was observed to influence both the guidance of search to the target object (Experiment 3) and the basic operation of assigning single exemplars to categories (Experiment 4). Finally, the rapid acquisition of category-specific regularities was also quickly modified, with the benefit rapidly decreasing during the search session as participants were exposed equally to the two possible colors in each category. The results demonstrate that object categories organize the acquisition of perceptual regularities and that this learning exerts strong control over the instantiation of the category representation as a template for visual search. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Attentional templates are protected from retroactive interference during visual search: Converging evidence from event-related potentials

Attentional templates are stored representations of target features that guide visual search. Target features may remain fixed or change on every trial, requiring sustained or transient templates, respectively. In separate blocks of trials, two sustained templates guide visual search as efficiently as two transient templates. In mixed blocks, however, the transient template interferes with the sustained template, impairing its efficiency in guiding visual search. Here, we hypothesized that the priority of the sustained template would increase when threatened by interference, eventually restoring efficient guidance of visual search. Participants memorized two possible target colors before the onset of the search display. At encoding, we assessed attentional selection of the two possible target colors with the N2pc. During subsequent maintenance, we measured the CDA as an index of resource allocation in working memory. In Experiment 1, the CDA was smaller with sustained than transient templates in separate blocks, but similar in mixed blocks. Thus, the sustained template received more working memory resources when maintained concurrently with an interfering transient template, suggesting that it was prioritized. In Experiment 2, the priority of the sustained template was further increased as it guided visual search in 80% of cases. The N2pc to possible target colors matching the sustained template was enhanced both at encoding and during visual search, thus eliminating interference from the transient template. Therefore, sustained templates are not necessarily less efficient than transient templates. Rather, prioritization through attentional selection at encoding and resource allocation during maintenance may restore efficient guidance of visual search.

When visual distractors predict tactile search: The temporal profile of cross-modal spatial learning.

Contextual cueing refers to the guidance of search by associative learning of the location of task-relevant target items in relation to the consistent arrangement of distractor ("context") items in the search display. The present study investigated whether such target-distractor associations could also be formed in a cross-modal search task in which the invariant distractor context is visual and the target is tactile. Each trial display consisted of 8 vibrotactile stimuli delivered to 4 fingers of each hand, with the target singled out by a vibrotactile feature difference relative to the homogeneous nontarget vibrations. In addition, there were 4 visual (Gabor) distractors and 4 empty circles colocated (on a different depth plane) with the vibrotactile stimuli. Crucially, in half of the trials, the location of the tactile target was associated with an identical (repeated) configuration, or "context," of visual distractors. The results revealed facilitated RTs to the tactile targets when they were presented (250 to) 450 ms prior to-but not simultaneously with or after-a repeated visual distractor configuration, demonstrating a novel visuo-tactile contextual-cueing effect. Additional tests indicated that the optimal tactile preview period is broadly in line with the time required to recode the (initially) somatotopically sensed tactile stimuli into an external format shared with the visual items. We propose that, besides divided attention between the 2 modalities, the acquisition of search-guiding cross-modal context associations critically depends on the spatiotemporal colocation of the visuo-tactile stimuli. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring functional dynamics of innovation for inclusive development: event history analysis of an ICT4D project

ABSTRACT Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) projects aim to improve the living conditions of marginalized communities. However, ICT4D interventions have high failure rates. We draw on the Technological Innovation for Inclusive Development Systems (TI4IDS) framework, which argues that ICT4D projects are embedded in a system affected by many different actors, stakeholders and institutions. We analyze this through a qualitative exploratory case study of an ICT4D project for Elderly Rural Women in Mafarafara in Limpopo, South Africa. We map a set of TI4IDS functions through event history analysis (EHA) to explore how ICT4D projects may be implemented. We draw conclusions regarding the dynamic exhibited in the projects and show how the focus shifted from the development of knowledge and guidance of search to knowledge diffusion during the uptake of the technology with a more significant focus on resource mobilization and market formulation towards the later phases.

Search for the Unknown: Guidance of Visual Search in the Absence of an Active Template

Can you efficiently look for something even without knowing what it looks like? According to theories of visual search, the answer is no: A template of the search target must be maintained in an active state to guide search for potential locations of the target. Here, we tested the need for an active template by assessing a case in which this template is improbable: the search for a familiar face among unfamiliar ones when the identity of the target face is unknown. Because people are familiar with hundreds of faces, an active guiding template seems unlikely in this case. Nevertheless, participants (35 Israelis and 33 Germans) were able to guide their search as long as extrafoveal processing of the target features was possible. These results challenge current theories of visual search by showing that guidance can rely on long-term memory and extrafoveal processing rather than on an active search template.

Out with the old: New target templates impair the guidance of visual search by preexisting task goals.

Representations of known target features (attentional templates) guide attention toward target objects during visual search. Recent research has shown that templates for different target-defining attributes can be maintained simultaneously, but interactions between multiple templates have not yet been studied systematically. Here, we investigated the competition between long-term (sustained) and short-term (transient) search goals in tasks where participants searched for targets defined by 1 of 2 possible colors. One target color remained constant across blocks or runs of trials, while the other changed on every trial. Both colors were indicated at the start of each trial by cue displays. To assess the efficiency of target selection processes guided by sustained and transient color templates, RTs and N2pc components were measured in Experiment 1 for search displays that contained a target in the constant or variable color. Results revealed robust sustained-template costs. RTs were slower and N2pc components emerged later and were smaller for sustained-color as compared to transient-color target objects. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated that this cost emerged rapidly, within 2 trials after a new constant color template had been established. These findings suggest that the activation of a new top-down search goal impairs the ability of a preexisting template in working memory to guide attention toward target objects, reflecting a new type of retroactive interference in the control of visual search. These findings also have implications for our understanding of interactions between short-term task goals and longer-term attentional biases associated with the affective or motivational valence of objects. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

An evaluation of a training intervention to support the use of evidence in healthcare commissioning in England.

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in England are responsible for the health of their populations through the services they provide, yet we know that the use of evidence to inform commissioning decisions is low. A programme of training in seven CCGs in England was instigated in a joint piece of work by the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care and Academic Health Science Network in the West of England, to help build an evidence informed culture in commissioning. Evidence workshops were delivered in each of the seven CCGs in the West of England by an experienced senior lecturer (the author) and local healthcare librarians. The workshop was developed by the author and an information scientist and included guidance and demonstration of a systematic evidence search covering both traditional and grey literature, and a brief look at quality of evidence including a critical appraisal activity. Participants were asked to evaluate the workshop on the day and to indicate an intended action they would take as a result of the workshop; a short follow-up interview was carried out with a sample of participants between 3 and 6 months later, to identify any longer term impact of the training. A total of 63 staff in a variety of commissioning-related roles attended the workshops between March and September 2016. 95% rated the workshop overall as either 'excellent' or 'good'. Of particular value was the involvement of the local healthcare librarian, helping to promote their expertise and services; and the discussion of grey literature as a valuable source of evidence. A variety of intended actions as a result of the training included initiating a thorough search for evidence for new projects, use of bibliographic databases, and making use of local library services for evidence searching. Follow-up interviews with nine staff revealed a positive impact in the longer-term. This ranged from simply triggering an interest in using evidence, boosting motivation and sharing information with colleagues; to changes in processes such as broadening the responsibility for finding and filtering evidence for business cases; to one clear case of financial savings resulting from a search for evidence by a senior commissioning manager. Offering short, interactive training workshops is valued by healthcare commissioners and can make a difference to their approach to and use of evidence in decision-making. There is a need for a flexible approach to the concept of evidence in healthcare commissioning, which includes the use of grey literature, and training can encourage and support the systematic search for an appraisal of this type of evidence. Tools for improving and sustaining this aspect of evidence use by commissioners are included here.

UAV track planning based on evolution algorithm in embedded system

The embedded controller is small in size and powerful in computing power, and can quickly complete the related processing and calculation of flight attitude and track planning data. Wireless data transmission can realize a long-distance data transmission between the aircraft command center and the airborne control platform. Based on the data fusion algorithm of the Kalmánz filter, the data collected by multiple sensors can be integrated, which can effectively reduce the measurement noise amplitude. At the same time, the cumulative error of a single sensor is reduced. In order to solve the problems of ant colony algorithm in case it is easy to fall into the local extremum and the convergence speed is slow, an improved ant colony algorithm for 3D navigation of unmanned aerial vehicles is proposed for trace planning. This study divides the three-dimensional track planning into two parts based on the improved ant colony algorithm for two-dimensional plane planning and height planning. Geometric optimization methods to enhance the guidance of ant search are used. According to the distance and height constraints between the track point and the threat source, the altitude of the track points to plan the 3D track of the drone is calculated and adjusted. At the same time, the adaptive parameter adjustment method is used to improve the ant colony search ability and the interaction ability between individuals, and effectively get rid of the situation to avoid to falling into a local optimum. In addition, the index function is established and the path is smoothed. Simulation results show that the proposed improved algorithm cannot only safely avoid threats in the three-dimensional environment, but also has the ability to find the optimal solution and the convergence speed is better than the original algorithm.

Spatial filtering restricts the attentional window during both singleton and feature-based visual search.

We investigated whether spatial filtering can restrict attentional selectivity during visual search to a currently task-relevant attentional window. While effective filtering has been demonstrated during singleton search, feature-based attention is believed to operate spatially globally across the entire visual field. To test whether spatial filtering depends on search mode, we assessed its efficiency both during feature-guided search with colour-defined targets and during singleton search tasks. Search displays were preceded by spatial cues. Participants responded to target objects at cued/relevant locations, and ignored them when they appeared on the uncued/irrelevant side. In four experiments, electrophysiological markers of attentional selection and distractor suppression (N2pc and PD components) were measured for relevant and irrelevant target-matching objects. During singleton search, N2pc components were triggered by relevant target singletons, but were entirely absent for singletons on the irrelevant side, demonstrating effective spatial filtering. Critically, similar results were found for feature-based search. N2pcs to irrelevant target-colour objects were either absent or strongly attenuated (when these objects were salient), indicating that the feature-based guidance of visual search can be restricted to relevant locations. The presence of PD components to salient objects on the irrelevant side during feature-based and singleton search suggests that spatial filtering involves active distractor suppression. These results challenge the assumption that feature-based attentional guidance is always spatially global. They suggest instead that when advance information about target locations becomes available, effective spatial filtering processes are activated transiently not only in singleton search, but also during search for feature-defined targets.

Enhanced leadership-inspired grey wolf optimizer for global optimization problems

Grey wolf optimizer (GWO) is a recently developed population-based algorithm in the area of nature-inspired optimization. The leading hunters in GWO are responsible for exploring the new promising regions of the search space. However, in some circumstances, the classical GWO suffers from the problem of premature convergence due to the stagnation at sub-optimal solutions. The insufficient guidance of search in GWO leads to slow convergence. Therefore, to alleviate from all the above issues, an improved leadership-based GWO called GLF–GWO is introduced in the present paper. In GLF–GWO, the leaders are updated through Levy-flight search mechanism. The proposed GLF–GWO algorithm enhances the search efficiency of leading hunters in GWO and provides better guidance to accelerate the search process of GWO. In the GLF–GWO algorithm, the greedy selection is introduced to avoid their divergence from discovered promising areas of the search space. To validate the efficiency of the GLF–GWO, the standard benchmark suite IEEE CEC 2014 and IEEE CEC 2006 are taken. The proposed GLF–GWO algorithm is also employed to solve some real-engineering problems. Experimental results reveal that the proposed GLF–GWO algorithms significantly improve the performance of the classical version of GWO.