The guidance of visual search by shape features and shape configurations.

McCants, Cody W.; Berggren, Nick; Eimer, Martin · 2018 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000514

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Summary

This study investigates how attentional templates guide visual search when targets are defined by the spatial configuration of component shapes rather than single features. While previous research established that search for color conjunctions is guided by independent feature templates insensitive to spatial arrangement, it remained unclear whether shape-based search operates similarly or utilizes configural information. The authors hypothesized that shape configuration search might involve both part-based and configuration-based guidance, given that real-world object recognition relies heavily on the spatial arrangement of geometric components. To test this, the researchers employed event-related potentials (ERPs), specifically the N2pc component, which serves as an electrophysiological marker of attentional selection. In Experiment 1, participants searched for targets defined by a specific vertical arrangement of two shapes (e.g., hourglass above circle) among distractors. Distractor types included nonmatching objects, partially matching objects (containing one target shape), and reverse distractors (containing both target shapes in the opposite arrangement). EEG data were recorded to measure the timing and amplitude of attentional biases toward these objects. The results demonstrated that attentional guidance is initially driven by part-based templates but later becomes sensitive to spatial configuration. Reverse distractors triggered significant N2pc components and delayed target identification, indicating that early attentional processes could not distinguish between targets and reverse distractors because they shared the same component shapes. However, the target N2pc emerged later (approximately 240 ms post-stimulus) and was larger than the N2pc elicited by reverse distractors. This temporal dissociation suggests that while early selection is feature-based, subsequent processing incorporates configural information, allowing attention to bias more strongly toward the correctly arranged target. Additionally, partially matching distractors elicited smaller N2pcs than reverse distractors, further supporting the role of specific shape features in early guidance. These findings challenge the assumption that attentional templates are exclusively feature-based or strictly integrated object representations. Instead, they reveal a dynamic process where search is initially controlled by independent templates for component shapes, followed by a later stage where templates for spatial configurations refine attentional selection. This implies that the visual system can utilize relational information to guide attention, provided sufficient processing time is available. The study highlights that the efficiency of visual search depends on the interplay between part-based and configural guidance mechanisms, offering new insights into the nature of attentional templates in complex search tasks.

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• visual search