Search guidance is proportional to the categorical specificity of a target cue

摘要

Visual search studies typically assume the availability of precise target information to guide search,often a picture of the exact target. However, search targets in the real world are often defined categ-orically and with varying degrees of visual specificity. In five target preview conditions we manipulatedthe availability of target visual information in a search task for common real-world objects. Previewswere: a picture of the target, an abstract textual description of the target, a precise textual description,an abstract + colour textual description, or a precise + colour textual description. Guidance gener-ally increased as information was added to the target preview. We conclude that the information usedfor search guidance need not be limited to a picture of the target. Although generally less precise, tothe extent that visual information can be extracted from a target label and loaded into workingmemory, this information too can be used to guide search.