A conjunctive feature similarity effect for visual search

Abstract

Traditional models of visual search assume interitem similarity effects arise from within each feature dimension independently of other dimensions. In the present study, we examine whether distractor–distractor effects also depend on feature conjunctions (i.e., whether feature conjunctions form a separate “feature” dimension that influences interitem similarity). Spatial frequency and orientation feature dimensions were used to generate distractors. In the bound condition, the number of distractors sharing the same conjunction of features was higher than that in the unbound condition, but the sharing of features within frequency and orientation dimensions was the same across conditions. The results showed that the target was found more efficiently in the bound than in the unbound condition, indicating that distractor–distractor similarity is also influenced by conjunctive representations.