Summary
In research on visual search within a single eye fixation, a number of different tasks are used and referred to interchangeably. In a previous study, we showed that there are differences between “go- no go” tasks and “yes-no” tasks, and we introduced a tentative model in order to explain these differences. In the present study a “go- no go” task and a “detection” task are compared under conditions which are as equal as possible. Traditional views of the visual search process predict no essential differences between the two tasks. The tentative model predicts a steeper slope of the array-size function in the “detection” task than in the “go- no go” task and predicts that this difference in slopes is stable with practice. The results obtained appeared in accordance with the predictions of the tentative model. This result supports the point of view that response-related factors strongly contribute to the slope of the array-size function. The data are not in accord with predictions following from Estes' (1972) interactive channels model.
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van der Heijden, A.H.C., La Heij, W. The array-size function in simple visual search tasks: A comparison between a “go- no go” and a “detection” task under conditions of low target-noise similarity. Psychol. Res 45, 221–234 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00308703
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00308703