TY - JOUR
T1 - History matters: The preview benefit in search is not onset capture
AU - Kunar, Melina
AU - Humphreys, Glyn
AU - Smith, Kelly
PY - 2003/3/1
Y1 - 2003/3/1
N2 - Visual search for a conjunction target is made easier when distractor items are temporally segregated over time to produce two separate old and new groups (the new group containing the target item). The benefit of presenting half the distractors first is known as the preview effect. Recently some researchers have argued that the preview effect occurs because new stimuli capture attention. This account was tested in the present study by using a novel "top-up" condition that exploits the fact that when previews appear only briefly before the search display, there is minimal preview benefit. We show that effects of a brief preview can be "topped up" by an earlier exposure of the same items, even when the preview disappears between its first and second presentations. This top-up effect demonstrates that the history of the old stimuli is important for the preview benefit, contrary to the account favoring onset capture. We discuss alternative accounts of how the preview benefit arises.
AB - Visual search for a conjunction target is made easier when distractor items are temporally segregated over time to produce two separate old and new groups (the new group containing the target item). The benefit of presenting half the distractors first is known as the preview effect. Recently some researchers have argued that the preview effect occurs because new stimuli capture attention. This account was tested in the present study by using a novel "top-up" condition that exploits the fact that when previews appear only briefly before the search display, there is minimal preview benefit. We show that effects of a brief preview can be "topped up" by an earlier exposure of the same items, even when the preview disappears between its first and second presentations. This top-up effect demonstrates that the history of the old stimuli is important for the preview benefit, contrary to the account favoring onset capture. We discuss alternative accounts of how the preview benefit arises.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0038389118&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/1467-9280.t01-1-01439
DO - 10.1111/1467-9280.t01-1-01439
M3 - Article
C2 - 12661682
SN - 1467-9280
VL - 14
SP - 181
EP - 185
JO - Psychological Science
JF - Psychological Science
ER -