Abstract
How can we find one visual stimulus in a world filled with thousands of simultaneous stimuli? In particular, how does the search for a looked-for stimulus proceed when we know its colour or location?
We examined the effect of target - distractor confusability on colour-based and location-based selection. The displays consisted of two elements. The target was either an orange or a green line- segment surrounded by a square. The distracting element was either easily distinguished from the target or more confusable with it. Subjects were cued to the colour or location of the target and made a rapid discrimination response to the direction of the target. In different conditions, the most likely target location (above or below the centre of the display) and colour were cued. With a clear distinction between the target and the distractor, performance differed with valid and invalid cues only in the location-cuing condition. When the distinction was poorer, both colour and location cues had a significant effect. The results show that, if necessary, attentional selection can be triggered by different stimulus attributes, even though selection may always proceed via space.
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