The influence of visual search upon subsequent change detection

The top-down allocation of attention is based on the goals of the observer, however there is an argument that attention may also be affected by implicit processes. Two experiments paired a visual search task with a change detection task to evaluate the possibility that the type of search in the first part of a trial would impact on change detection ability in the second part by influencing the allocation of attention in this subsequent task. Participants were shown a series of visual images and were first asked to search for targets within each array. Following this one item in the array changed. The changed array and original array continued to alternate until the change had been detected. Response times were measured as a function of whether the changed item was a target or distracter from the previous search task, and whether the change was congruent to the search feature. Changes to targets were detected faster than changes to distracters, and congruent changes were detected faster than incongruent changes. This gives support to other findings showing that visual search does involve memory, and this memory continues to guide attention even when the task demands change