Understanding the contribution of target repetition and target expectation to the emergence of the prevalence effect in visual search.

ABSTRACT: Behavior in visual search tasks is influenced by the proportion of trials on which a target is presented (the target prevalence). Previous research has shown that when target prevalence is low (2 % prevalence), participants tend to miss targets, as compared with higher prevalence levels (e.g., 50 % prevalence). There is an ongoing debate regarding the relative contributions of target repetition and the expectation that a target will occur in the emergence of prevalence effects. In order to disentangle these two factors, we went beyond previous studies by directly manipulating participants' expectations regarding how likely a target was to appear on a given trial. This we achieved without using cues or feedback. Our results indicated that both target repetition and target expectation contri

SUBMITTER: Godwin HJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4887539 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature