Abstract
This paper reexamines the visual search process, and visual information processing more generally, from a perspective of the continuous flow of information and responses through the visual system. The results from three experiments are reported which support the continuous flow conception: Information accumulates gradually in the visual system, with concurrent priming of responses. The first two experiments investigated the processing of display stimuli which varied in size and figure-ground contrast in a nonsearch task, and provided evidence confirming a continuous flow model. Experiment 3 employed an asynchronous onset of target and noise and provided convergent evidence of the accumulative nature of information and response priming in visual processing.
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This research was supported by Public Health Service Research Career program Award K6-MH-22014 to the first author and by U.S. Public Health Service Research Grant MH-01206.
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Eriksen, C.W., Schultz, D.W. Information processing in visual search: A continuous flow conception and experimental results. Perception & Psychophysics 25, 249–263 (1979). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03198804
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03198804