The Mechanism Of The Effect Of The Color Radio Of Old And New Items On Preview Benefit

Color is closely related to our life and has the vital significance to human. The research on preview benefit also highlights the role of color. Researchers focus on the role of the color feature and find that people can suppress the color feature of old items to prioritize the selection of new items. Moreover, researchers examine preview benefit under different color ratio. From the results, it can be seen that preview benefit differs in different color ratio. So the color ratio may be an important factor of preview benefit. However, these studies all ignore the effect of the color ratio so that the extra variable introduced will affect the results. Previous research investigated the factors influencing preview benefit, and find that preview benefit is affected by preview time, age, the state of old items in preview stage, anticipatory set of the target's color. But these studies also ignore the effect of the color ratio on preview benefit.The color ratio probably affects color-based inhibition of old items so preview benefit can be influenced, which can further reveal the mechanism of color-based inhibition of old items. In daily life, people are often exposed to the mixture of multiple color, where the effect of the color radio exists. The present research investigates the influence mechanism of the color radio of old and new items on preview benefit.The first research investigated the color radio of old and new items affected preview benefit. Using preview paradigm, Experiment 1 and 2 manipulated the color ratio of old items and new items separately to examine the effect of the color ratio of old items and new items on preview benefit. The results showed that preview benefit was obtained in the preview condition with the color radio bias against old items and new items, but only occurred when the target carrying the minority color of old items (Experiment 1) and the majority color of new items (Experiment 2). Whether the target carrying the color of old items or new items, preview benefit was not obtained in the preview condition without the color radio bias against old and new items (Experiment 1 and 2). It suggested that both the color ratio of old items and the color ratio of new items affected preview benefit and preview benefit was affected by the relationship between the color ratio of old and new items. Experiment 3 combined preview search task with luminance probe task to examine the role of location-based inhibition of old items and color-based inhibition of old items in the effect of the color radio of old and new items on preview benefit. For the preview search task, when the target carrying the majority color of old items and the minority color of new items, preview benefit was not obtained. However, negative color-based carryover effects occurred in both the two preview conditions, which revealed that color-based inhibition of old items played a role and determined the occurrence of preview benefit. For the luminance probe task, RTs to probes were generally longer if they fell on old rather than new items in the preview condition with the color radio bias against old items and the color radio bias against new items, which proved that there was location-based inhibition of old items. Further, when the probe was on an old item, RTs were longer when it was in the majority relative to when it was in the minority color group; when the probe was on a new item, RTs were longer when it was in the new minority group in comparison with when it was in the new majority. It proved that there was color-based inhibition of old items. Experiment 3 suggested that the effect of the color radio of old and new items on preview benefit was the role of location-based inhibition of old items and color-based inhibition of old items, moreover, color-based inhibition of old items played a decisive role.The second research further investigated the role of anticipatory set of the target's color in the effect of the color radio of old and new items on preview benefit. Using the instructions to manipulate anticipatory set of the target's specific color before tests, Experiment 4 examined the role of anticipatory set of the target's specific color. For the preview condition with the color radio bias against old items and the color radio bias against new items, when the target's specific color foreknowledge were not given, the results replicated the results from the first research. However, when the target's specific color foreknowledge were provided, the results were the opposite of the first research. It suggested that the effect of the color radio of old and new items on preview benefit was not the role of anticipatory set of the target's specific color. Experiment 5 further examined the role of anticipatory set of the target's color group. For the preview condition with the color radio bias against old items and the color radio bias against new items, when the target's color group foreknowledge were not given, the results replicated the results from the first research. However, when the target's color group foreknowledge were provided, the results were the opposite of the first research. It suggested that the effect of the color radio of old and new items on preview benefit was not the role of anticipatory set of the target's color group. The second research suggested that the effect of the color radio of old and new items on preview benefit was not the role of anticipatory set of the target's color.The third research further investigated the time course of color-based inhibition of old items. Employing ERP technology, Experiment 6 used both RTs and ERP components as the indicators to examine the time course of color-based inhibition of old items. The ERP results showed that in the N1 and N2 components the mean amplitude of the target carrying the majority color of old items was lower than that of the target carrying the minority color of old items, and the mean amplitude of the target carrying the minority color of new items was lower than that of the target carrying the majority color of new items at 170-270ms after the onset of the search display. It suggested that the effect of the color radio of old and new items on preview benefit was the result that color-based inhibition of old items occurred spreading suppression at 170-270ms after the onset of the search display so preview benefit was influenced.The present research investigated the influence mechanism of the color radio of old and new items on preview benefit. The results suggested that:(1) both the color ratio of old items and the color ratio of new items affected preview benefit and preview benefit was affected by the relationship between the color ratio of old and new items, which provided a new influencing factor for preview benefit and extended the role of color in preview benefit. (2) the effect of the color radio of old and new items on preview benefit was not the role of anticipatory set of the target's color but the role of location-based inhibition of old items and color-based inhibition of old items, moreover, color-based inhibition of old items played a decisive role, which revealed the mode of action of the two kinds of inhibiting form. (3) color-based inhibition of old items occurred spreading suppression at 170-270ms after the onset of the search display so preview benefit was influenced, which employed ERP technology to reveal the neural mechanisms of color-based inhibition of old items for the first time and expanded the content and depth of the neural mechanisms of preview benefit. The comprehensive discuss concluded that:for the color radio bias against old items and new items, when old and new items were presented with abrupt onsets, preview benefit could be the role of location-based inhibition of old items, color-based inhibition of old items and the attention capture by new onsets, moreover, color-based inhibition of old items played a decisive role; when old and new items were presented with equiluminant with the background, preview benefit could be the role of location-based inhibition of old items and color-based inhibition of old items, moreover, location-based inhibition of old items played a decisive role.