Feature Integration Theory Revisited: Dissociating Feature Detection and Attentional Guidance in Visual Search

In feature integration theory (FIT; A. Treisman & S. Sato, 1990 ), feature detection is driven by independent dimensional modules, and other searches are driven by a master map of locations that integrates dimensional information into salience signals. Although recent theoretical models have lar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance 2009-02, Vol.35 (1), p.119-132
Main Authors: Chan, Louis K. H, Hayward, William G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activity levels. Psychomotricity
Attention
Biological and medical sciences
Detection
Experimental psychology
Experiments
Facial Features
Female
Foreign Countries
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Guidance
Higher Education
Hong Kong
Human
Humans
Information processing
Intervals
Localization
Male
Meta Analysis
Perception
Psychological Theory
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time
Signal Detection, Psychological
Signals
Stimuli
Studies
Theories
Undergraduate Students
Vigilance. Attention. Sleep
Vision
Visual Attention
Visual Discrimination
Visual Perception
Visual Search
Visual searching
Visual task performance
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Summary:In feature integration theory (FIT; A. Treisman & S. Sato, 1990 ), feature detection is driven by independent dimensional modules, and other searches are driven by a master map of locations that integrates dimensional information into salience signals. Although recent theoretical models have largely abandoned this distinction, some observed results are difficult to explain in its absence. The present study measured dimension-specific performance during detection and localization, tasks that require operation of dimensional modules and the master map, respectively. Results showed a dissociation between tasks in terms of both dimension-switching costs and cross-dimension attentional capture, reflecting a dimension-specific nature for detection tasks and a dimension-general nature for localization tasks. In a feature-discrimination task, results precluded an explanation based on response mode. These results are interpreted to support FIT's postulation that different mechanisms are involved in parallel and focal attention searches. This indicates that the FIT architecture should be adopted to explain the current results and that a variety of visual attention findings can be addressed within this framework.
ISSN:0096-1523
1939-1277
DOI:10.1037/0096-1523.35.1.119