Category effects in temporal visual search

Abstract

When subjects identify a target during rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), they show a reduced ability to detect a subsequent probe stimulus relative to when they ignore the target. The present study demonstrated an effect of target/probe categorical relation upon this probe detection deficit (attentional blink). Experiment 1 used letters for both target and probe, replicating the general methods and results of Raymond, Shapiro, and Arnell (1992). Experiment 2 varied target/probe categorical relation via instructional set: The target was referred to as the letter 'oh', whereas for other subjects it was referred to as the number 'zero.' Treating O as a number attenuated the probe detection deficit. This different-category attenuation was confirmed in Experiment 3 where the target was a letter and the probe was a number. The observed category effect suggests that the probe detection deficit in RSVP may map a time course from spreading intra-category inhibition following temporal target selection.