Guided search: An alternative to the feature integration model for visual search.

Abstract

Subjects searched sets of items for targets defined by conjunctions of color and form, color and orientation, or color and size. Set size was varied and reaction times (RT) were measured. For many unpracticed subjects, the slopes of the resulting RT X Set Size functions are too shallow to be consistent with Treisman's feature integration model, which proposes serial, self-terminating search for conjunctions. Searches for triple conjunctions (Color X Size X Form) are easier than searches for standard conjunctions and can be independent of set size. A guided search model similar to Hoffman's (1979) two-stage model can account for these data. In the model, parallel processes use information about simple features to guide attention in the search for conjunctions. Triple conjunctions are found more efficiently than standard conjunctions because three parallel processes can guide attention more effectively than two.

Cites (31)

1. A feature-integration theory of attention.
   Treisman, Anne M., Gelade, Garry · 1980 · Cognitive Psychology
2. Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending, and a general theory
   Shiffrin, Richard M., Schneider, Walter · 1977 · Psychological Review
3. Controlled and automatic human information processing: I. Detection, search, and attention.
   Schneider, Walter, Shiffrin, Richard M. · 1977 · Psychological Review
4. High-speed scanning in human memory
   Sternberg, Saul · 1966 · Science
5. Feature analysis in early vision: Evidence from search asymmetries.
   Anne Treisman, Stephen Gormican · 1988 · Psychological Review
6. On the speed of mental processes
   Donders, F.C. · 1969 · Acta Psychologica
7. Features and Objects: The Fourteenth Bartlett Memorial Lecture
   Treisman, Anne · 1988 · The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A
8. Serial and parallel processing of visual feature conjunctions
   Nakayama, Ken, Silverman, Gerald H. · 1986 · Nature
9. Features and Objects in Visual Processing
   Treisman, Anne · 1986 · Scientific American
10. Modeling the role of parallel processing in visual search
    Cave, Kyle R, Wolfe, Jeremy M · 1990 · Cognitive Psychology

Show all 31 references

Cited by (1,006)

1. Neural Mechanisms of Selective Visual Attention
   Desimone, Robert, Duncan, John · 1995 · Annual Review of Neuroscience
2. Visual search and stimulus similarity.
   Duncan, John, Humphreys, Glyn W. · 1989 · Psychological Review
3. Guided Search 2.0 A revised model of visual search
   Wolfe, Jeremy M. · 1994 · Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
4. Dual-task interference in simple tasks: data and theory
   Pashler, Harold · 1994 · Psychological Bulletin
5. Neuronal Synchrony: A Versatile Code for the Definition of Relations?
   Singer, Wolf · 1999 · Neuron

See all 2,147

Related (10)

1. Guided search for triple conjunctions
   Maria Nordfang, Jeremy M. Wolfe · 2014 · Attention Perception & Psychophysics
2. Does guidance take time to develop during a visual search trial?
   Kristin O. Michod, Jeremy M. Wolfe, Todd S. Horowitz · 2004 · Journal of Vision
3. Bound to guide: A surprising, preattentive role for conjunctions in visual search
   Jeremy M. Wolfe · 2010 · Journal of Vision
4. Taking Conjunction Search to a Higher Dimension
   Jeremy M. Wolfe, Maria Nordfang, Zurita Aina Martinez · 2011 · i-Perception
5. Conjunction-guided selection in visual search
   Igor Utochkin · 2013 · Journal of Vision

See all