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Colour and spatial cueing in low-prevalence visual search
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Russell, Nicholas C. C. and Kunar, Melina A. (2012) Colour and spatial cueing in low-prevalence visual search. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Volume 65 (Number 7). pp. 1327-1344. doi:10.1080/17470218.2012.656662 ISSN 1747-0218.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2012.656662
Abstract
In visual search, 30–40% of targets with a prevalence rate of 2% are missed, compared to 7% of targets with a prevalence rate of 50% (Wolfe, Horowitz, & Kenner, 2005). This “low-prevalence” (LP) effect is thought to occur as participants are making motor errors, changing their response criteria, and/or quitting their search too soon. We investigate whether colour and spatial cues, known to improve visual search when the target has a high prevalence (HP), benefit search when the target is rare. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that although knowledge of the target's colour reduces miss errors overall, it does not eliminate the LP effect as more targets were missed at LP than at HP. Furthermore, detection of a rare target is significantly impaired if it appears in an unexpected colour—more so than if the prevalence of the target is high (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 showed that, if a rare target is exogenously cued, target detection is improved but still impaired relative to high-prevalence conditions. Furthermore, if the cue is absent or invalid, the percentage of missed targets increases. Participants were given the option to correct motor errors in all three experiments, which reduced but did not eliminate the LP effect. The results suggest that although valid colour and spatial cues improve target detection, participants still miss more targets at LP than at HP. Furthermore, invalid cues at LP are very costly in terms of miss errors. We discuss our findings in relation to current theories and applications of LP search.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology | ||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Searching behavior, Space perception, Color -- Psychological aspects | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology | ||||
Publisher: | Psychology Press | ||||
ISSN: | 1747-0218 | ||||
Official Date: | 2012 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Volume 65 | ||||
Number: | Number 7 | ||||
Number of Pages: | 18 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 1327-1344 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1080/17470218.2012.656662 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 29 December 2015 | ||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 29 December 2015 |
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