Previewing distracters reduces their effective contrast
In a visual search task, when half the distracters are presented earlier than the remainder (‘previewed’), observers find the target item more efficiently than when all the items are presented together—the preview benefit. We measured psychometric functions for contrast increments on Gabors that wer...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2007
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32315/ |
| _version_ | 1848794382373748736 |
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| author | Allen, Harriet A. Humphreys, Glyn W. |
| author_facet | Allen, Harriet A. Humphreys, Glyn W. |
| author_sort | Allen, Harriet A. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | In a visual search task, when half the distracters are presented earlier than the remainder (‘previewed’), observers find the target item more efficiently than when all the items are presented together—the preview benefit. We measured psychometric functions for contrast increments on Gabors that were presented as a valid preview for subsequent search, and when they were a non-predictive (dummy) preview. Sensitivity to contrast increments was lower (rightwards shift of the psychometric function) on valid, compared to dummy previews. This is consistent with an account of the preview benefit in terms of active inhibition, equivalent to lowering the contrast of previewed items that are being actively ignored. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:15:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-32315 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:15:18Z |
| publishDate | 2007 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-323152020-05-04T16:27:00Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32315/ Previewing distracters reduces their effective contrast Allen, Harriet A. Humphreys, Glyn W. In a visual search task, when half the distracters are presented earlier than the remainder (‘previewed’), observers find the target item more efficiently than when all the items are presented together—the preview benefit. We measured psychometric functions for contrast increments on Gabors that were presented as a valid preview for subsequent search, and when they were a non-predictive (dummy) preview. Sensitivity to contrast increments was lower (rightwards shift of the psychometric function) on valid, compared to dummy previews. This is consistent with an account of the preview benefit in terms of active inhibition, equivalent to lowering the contrast of previewed items that are being actively ignored. Elsevier 2007-10-01 Article PeerReviewed Allen, Harriet A. and Humphreys, Glyn W. (2007) Previewing distracters reduces their effective contrast. Vision Research, 47 (23). pp. 2992-3000. ISSN 1878-5646 Attention Contrast Sensitivity Inhibition Marking Visual Search http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042698907003276 doi:10.1016/j.visres.2007.07.019 doi:10.1016/j.visres.2007.07.019 |
| spellingShingle | Attention Contrast Sensitivity Inhibition Marking Visual Search Allen, Harriet A. Humphreys, Glyn W. Previewing distracters reduces their effective contrast |
| title | Previewing distracters reduces their effective contrast |
| title_full | Previewing distracters reduces their effective contrast |
| title_fullStr | Previewing distracters reduces their effective contrast |
| title_full_unstemmed | Previewing distracters reduces their effective contrast |
| title_short | Previewing distracters reduces their effective contrast |
| title_sort | previewing distracters reduces their effective contrast |
| topic | Attention Contrast Sensitivity Inhibition Marking Visual Search |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32315/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32315/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32315/ |