The hypothesis that foreknowledge of nontarget features in visual search is represented by negative search templates (“templates for rejection”) that facilitate attentional guidance remains disputed. In five experiments, we investigated this proposal by measuring search performance and electrophysiological markers of target selection (N2pc components) and nontarget suppression (P_D components). We compared search tasks where positive or negative cues signaled the color of targets or nontargets, respectively, and tasks with neutral non-informative cues. Positive cues elicited performance benefits relative to neutral cues. Negative cues produced behavioral and electrophysiological costs for target selection, and some evidence for the inhibition of negatively cued nontargets, but there was no support for the proposal that these items initially attract attention. Performance costs for negative cues dissipated after practice with the same negatively cued nontargets for approximately 25–50 trials, and eventually turned into benefits after several hundreds of trials. However, the emergence of negative cue benefits was not accompanied by electrophysiological evidence for faster or more efficient inhibition of nontargets, indicating that they are not produced by learned suppression mechanisms mediated by negative search templates. We conclude that templates for rejection do not facilitate search but normally interfere with target selection. Although negative cue benefits can be observed after extended exposure to the same nontarget features, these benefits do not reflect active attentional guidance, and are likely to be the result of passive habituation processes.

否定搜索模板（“拒绝模板”）代表了视觉搜索中对非目标特征的预知这一假设仍然存在争议。在五个实验中，我们通过测量搜索性能和目标选择的电生理指标（N2pc组件）和非靶抑制（P调查这个提议_d组件）。我们比较了搜索任务中正向或负向线索分别指示目标或非目标的颜色，以及具有中性非信息线索的任务。相对于中性提示，积极的提示会带来性能上的好处。阴性提示产生了选择靶标的行为和电生理成本，并为抑制阴性提示的非靶标提供了一些证据，但没有支持这些项目最初引起人们注意的提议。消极提示的性能成本在约25–50次试验中以相同的消极提示非目标消散后消失，最终在数百次试验后变成收益。但是，负面提示收益的出现并没有伴随电生理证据来更快或更有效地抑制非目标，表示它们不是由否定搜索模板介导的学习抑制机制产生的。我们得出的结论是，拒绝模板不会促进搜索，但通常会干扰目标选择。尽管长时间暴露于相同的非目标特征后可以看到负面的提示好处，但这些好处并未反映出主动的注意力指导，并且很可能是被动适应过程的结果。