Associated Knowledge To Control Visual Selective Attention Allocation

Some visual selective attention models ignore the existence of associative links among object representations. Here we show that such associations can strongly influence deployment of attention in humans.The present research included two experiments: visual search and free recall task; visual search and recognition tasks.The study's results showed that:(1)There is common trend with age in visual search and recognition tasks' accurate rate and reaction time, and free recall task's accurate rate. Accurate rate of visual search, free recall, and recognition task increased with age, otherwise, reaction time of visual search and recognition decreased with age.(2)Taking the associated object as searching object will significantly affect both visual search and recognition tasks' accurate rate and reaction time, and only significantly affect free recall task's accurate rate. The existence of associated object made the accurate rate of visual search, free recall, and recognition decreased, meanwhile made the reaction time of visual search and recognition increased.(3)Comparing experiment 1 with experiment 2, the latter visual search task's accurate rate increased and reaction time decreased, meanwhile, accurate rate of the recognition task was higher than the free recall task. The special effect of associated object's affecting visual selective attention is clearer in experiment 2.