Perceptual features win again: the role of knowledge of acting with objects in visual search

Cognitive Processing. 2025. Vol. 26. No. 4. P. 801–819.

Anufrieva A., Gorbunova E. S.

Can the activation of a motor programme help find object? On the assumption that knowledge about the way of acting with an object is included in its general representation, in the naming and categorization tasks a compatibility effect was obtained. Since during visual search an attention template is formed on the basis of theobject representation, the question of the occurrence of compatibility effect within a visual search task arises. This study focuses on the issue of the emergence of compatibility effects in visual search using subsequent search misses (SSM) paradigm. In a visual search task, subjects had to find a target stimulus (images of real objects) among distractors. There could be two, one, or none targets. During the search, subjects performed a differentiated grasping or pinching movements that were congruent, incongruent, and partially congruent to the target object. Additionally, an experiment was conducted where subjects didn’t perform any movement while searching for the same objects. The results demonstrated that visual search efficiency for the first or single target depends on perceptual features of objects rather than motor program congruency. Moreover, reaction time for the second target or reporting its absence linked with the search efficiency of the first or single ones: the more time spent searching for the first or single target, the less time was required for the second or for reporting absence. Generally speaking, activation of motor program has no impact on visual search for images of real objects in SSM paradigm.

Keywords: affordance, зрительный поиск, аффордансы, visual search