The effect of categorical superiority in subsequent search misses

Acta Psychologica. 2021. Vol. 219. Article 103375.

Rubtsova O., Gorbunova E. S.

Subsequent search misses (SSM) refer to the decrease in accuracy of second target detection in dual-target visual search. One of the theoretical explanations of SSM errors is similarity bias – the tendency to search for similar targets and to miss the dissimilar ones. The current study focuses on both perceptual and categorical similarity and their individual roles in SSM. Five experiments investigated the role of perceptual and categorical similarity in subsequent search misses, wherein perceptual and categorical similarities were manipulated separately, and task relevance was controlled. The role of both perceptual and categorical similarity was revealed, however, the categorical similarity had greater impact on second target detection. The findings of this research suggest the revision of the traditional perceptual set hypothesis that mainly focuses on perceptual target similarity in multiple target visual search.

Keywords: зрительный поиск, зрительное внимание, visual attention, subsequent search misses, пропуски при продолжении поиска, visual search, perceptual similarity, перцептивное сходство, categorical similarity, категориальное сходство

Publication based on the results of: Psychological mechanisms of solving perceptual, motor and mental tasks in users interaction with digital interfaces (2020)