Distracted by objects: The impact of earlier semantic categorization

According to attentional theories of associative learning, organisms tend to prioritize items with a higher predictive value over those with a lower predictive value. We investigated whether experiencing a semantic categorization task with naturalistic object images influences attentional selectio...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mu, Yunyun, Tünnermann, Jan, Schubö, Anna
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Philipps-Universität Marburg 2024
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Summary:According to attentional theories of associative learning, organisms tend to prioritize items with a higher predictive value over those with a lower predictive value. We investigated whether experiencing a semantic categorization task with naturalistic object images influences attentional selection in a subsequent visual search task. Participants first categorized either between tool and vehicle or between fruit and vegetable. In the subsequent search task, they searched for a new target object and ignored a distractor that was either from the category they had to distinguish in the former learning task or from a nonrelevant category. We assumed that the extent these distractors interfered with selecting the target depended on their former response predictiveness. Search times were analyzed by using a hierarchical learning curve model. The results showed that objects from previously response predictive categories impaired performance to a greater degree than objects from nonpredicitive categories, regardless of particular object categories. The findings suggest that categorization learning from both basic and superordinate level categories can impact attentional control settings similarly, with fruit and vegetable more likely being basic level categories and tool and vehicle being superordinate level categories.
Item Description:Gefördert durch den Open-Access-Publikationsfonds der UB Marburg.
DOI:10.5709/acp-0434-y