How Attentional Guidance and Response Selection Boost Contextual Learning: Evidence from Eye Movement

Abstract

The contextual cueing effect (CCE) refers to the learned association between predictive configuration and target location, speeding up response times for targets. Previous studies have examined the underlying processes (initial perceptual process, attentional guidance, and response selection) of CCE but have not reached a general consensus on their contributions to CCE. In the present study, we used eye tracking to address this question by analyzing the oculomotor correlates of context-guided learning in visual search and eliminating indefinite response factors during response priming. The results show that both attentional guidance and response selection contribute to contextual learning.

Keywords: attentional guidance; contextual cueing effect; eye movement; response selection.

Figure 1

A sample display of the search task.

Figure 2

Mean RTs as a function of epoch in predictive and random configurations for Set size 9 (left) and 12 (right).

Figure 3

Mean durations of initial latency as a function of epoch in predictive and random configurations for Set size 9 (left) and 12 (right).

Figure 4

Mean saccade number as a function of epoch in predictive and random configurations for Set size 9 (left) and 12 (right).

Figure 5

Mean durations of the last fixation to button press as a function of epoch in predictive and random configurations for Set size 9 (left) and 12 (right).

Figure 6

The difference salience fixation maps (Predictive - Random) with iMap for set size 9 (left panel) and set size 12 (right panel) in the first two epochs (top three panels) and the last two epochs (bottom three panels). Areas that show significant fixations are delimited by white borders (p < 0.05, corrected). Areas that show the target position are delimited by pink borders. Red signals represent fixations in a repeated configuration that were frequent within this region of space, relative to random configuration. Blue signals represent fixations in a repeated configuration that were less frequent within this region of space, relative to random configuration. The X and Y axis is centred and symmetrical around the central pixel values (512, 384).

Figure 7

Mean distance from fixation to target as a function of epoch in predictive and random configurations for Set size 9 (left) and 2 (right).

Figure 8

Fixation data grouped according to the number of fixations per trial and separately for predictive and random configurations. Top: mean distance (degree of visual angle) from the target of each fixation in turn from left to right. Bottom: percentage of trials with different numbers of fixations.