ABSTRACT
Three experiments investigated the role of target-target perceptual similarity within the attentional blink (AB). Various geometric shapes were presented in a rapid serial visual presentation task. Targets could have 2, 1, or 0 shared features. Features included shape and size. The second target was presented after five or six different lags after the first target. The task was to detect both targets on each trial. Second-target report accuracy was increased by target-target similarity. This modulation was observed more for mixed-trial design as compared with blocked design. Results are discussed in terms of increased stability of working memory representations and reduced interference for second-target processing.
ABSTRACT
Visual search (VS) for multiple targets is especially error prone. One of these errors is called subsequent search misses (SSM) and represents a decrease in accuracy at detecting a second target after a first target has been found. One of the possible explanations of SSM errors is working memory (WM) resource depletion. Three experiments investigated the role of WM in SSM errors using a dual task paradigm. The first experiment investigated the role of object WM using a classical color change detection task. In the second and the third experiments, a modified change detection task was applied, using shape as the relevant feature. The results of our study revealed no effect of additional WM task on second target detection in dual-target VS. To this end, SSM errors are not related to WM resource depletion. On the contrary, WM task performance was violated by dual-target VS as compared to single-target VS, when the targets in VS task were defined by the same feature used in the WM task.
