Attentional Control via Parallel Target-Templates in Dual-Target Search

Doug J K Barrett and Oliver Zobay

PLOS ONE, 2014, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Simultaneous search for two targets has been shown to be slower and less accurate than independent searches for the same two targets. Recent research suggests this ‘dual-target cost’ may be attributable to a limit in the number of target-templates than can guide search at any one time. The current study investigated this possibility by comparing behavioural responses during single- and dual-target searches for targets defined by their orientation. The results revealed an increase in reaction times for dual- compared to single-target searches that was largely independent of the number of items in the display. Response accuracy also decreased on dual- compared to single-target searches: dual-target accuracy was higher than predicted by a model restricting search guidance to a single target-template and lower than predicted by a model simulating two independent single-target searches. These results are consistent with a parallel model of dual-target search in which attentional control is exerted by more than one target-template at a time. The requirement to maintain two target-templates simultaneously, however, appears to impose a reduction in the specificity of the memory representation that guides search for each target.

Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0086848

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0086848

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