PREPARATORY EFFECTS IN POP-OUT SEARCH

Abstract

Preparing a selective response to a single item based on colour can influence subsequent search for a colour pop-out search target. One explanation of this preparatory effect is that the goal representation generated for the single item task is retrieved at the time of search via associative learning processes—akin to a task-switch cost. The current study tested this account by separating the single item and pop-out search tasks in space to reduce contextual overlap between them, which is known to reduce task switch costs, and encourage location-specific associative learning to occur. Surprisingly, this context manipulation had no impact on the magnitude of the preparatory effect. This result suggests that the preparatory effect may not reflect a carryover of higher order task set representations, but instead a carryover of lower order feature representations, in accordance with a dual-stage account of pop-out search.