In visual search tasks, responses to targets on one trial can influence responses on the next trial. Most typically, target repetition speeds response while switching to a different target slows response. Such “priming” effects have sometimes been given very significant roles in theories of search (e.g., Theeuwes, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 368, 1628, 2013). Most work on priming has involved “singleton” or “popout” tasks. In non-popout priming tasks, observers must often perform a task-switching operation because the guiding template for one target (e.g., a red vertical target in a conjunction task) is incompatible with efficient search for the other target (green horizontal, in this example). We examined priming in inefficient search where the priming feature (Color: Experiments 1–3, Shape: Experiments 4–5) was irrelevant to the task of finding a T among Ls. We wished to determine if finding a red T on one trial helped observers to be more efficient if the next T was also red. In all experiments, we found additive priming effects. The reaction time (RT) for the second trial was shorter if the color of the T was repeated. However, there was no interaction with set size. The slope of the RT × Set Size function was not shallower for runs of the same target color, compared to trials where the target color switched. We propose that priming might produce transient guidance of the earliest deployments of attention on the next trial or it might speed decisions about a selected target. Priming does not appear to guide attention over the entire search.

在视觉搜索任务中，在一次试验中对目标的反应会影响对下一次试验的反应。最典型的是，目标重复会加快响应速度，而切换到不同的目标会减慢响应速度。这种“启动”效应有时在搜索理论中被赋予了非常重要的作用（例如，Theeuwes, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 368,1628 年，2013 年）。大多数关于启动的工作都涉及“单例”或“弹出”任务。在非弹出启动任务中，观察者必须经常执行任务切换操作，因为一个目标（例如，联合任务中的红色垂直目标）的引导模板与对另一个目标（绿色水平，在此例子）。我们检查了低效搜索中的启动，其中启动特征（颜色：实验 1-3，形状：实验 4-5）与在 Ls 中找到 T 的任务无关。如果下一个 T 也是红色的，我们希望确定在一次试验中找到红色 T 是否有助于观察者更有效率。在所有实验中，我们发现了附加启动效应。如果重复 T 的颜色，则第二次试验的反应时间 (RT) 会更短。但是，与集合大小没有交互。与目标颜色切换的试验相比，对于相同目标颜色的运行，RT × Set Size 函数的斜率并不更浅。我们建议，启动可能会在下一次试验中对最早的注意力部署产生短暂的指导，或者它可能会加快对选定目标的决策。启动似乎不会引导整个搜索的注意力。