ABSTRACT

Preview benefit refers to faster search for a target when a subset of distractors is seen prior to the search display. We investigated whether reward modulates this effect. Participants identified a target among non-targets on each trial. On “preview” trials, placeholders occupied half the search array positions prior to the onset of the full array. On “non-preview” trials, no placeholders preceded the full search array. On preview trials, the target could appear at either a placeholder position (old-target-location condition) or a position where no placeholder had been (new-target-location condition). Critically, the colour of the stimulus array indicated whether participants would earn reward for a correct response. We found a typical preview benefit, but no evidence that reward modulated this effect, despite a manipulation check showing that stimuli in the reward-signaling colour tended to capture attention on catch trials. The results suggest that reward learning does not modulate the preview benefit.

摘要

预览优势是指在搜索显示之前看到干扰物的子集时，可以更快地搜索目标。我们调查了奖励是否调节了这种效果。参加者在每个试验的非靶标中确定了一个靶标。在“预览”试验中，占位符在整个数组开始之前占据了搜索数组位置的一半。在“非预览”试验中，没有占位符出现在整个搜索数组之前。在预览试验中，目标可能出现在占位符位置（旧目标位置条件）或没有占位符的位置（新目标位置条件）。至关重要的是，刺激阵列的颜色表明参与者是否会因正确做出反应而获得奖励。我们发现了一种典型的预览优势，但没有证据表明奖励可以调节这种效果，尽管进行了一次操作检查，但显示出奖励信号色的刺激倾向于引起渔获试验的注意。结果表明，奖励学习不会调节预览效果。