The Contextual Cueing Effect In The Multiple-Possible Target Condition:From Eyemovement

Chun and Jiang(1998)found that in a visual search task,participants searched target in the repeated scenes(the layout of the scene was invariant)were faster than in the novel scenes(the layout of the scene was random).This learning phenomenon named the contextual cueing effect(CC).Previous studies were mostly in the single target condition(the target and the layout of each repeated scenes are corresponding),through behavioral experimental results,to estimate and analyze the mechanism of the contextual cueing effect.In this study,we have mended the multiple possible targets paradigm.The advantage of this paradigm is that it can double the target location of each repeated scene,such as matching 2 or 4 target locations for each repeated scene without increasing the total number of targets.This makes the results of the multiple possible targets condition in this study more comparable to the results of the classical single target condition,which can better reveal the cognitive principle of CC.There are three main views about the mechanism of the CC:(1)Attentional guidance;(2)Response selection;(3)Dual-state modulation.Based on the point of view(1),if only the attention guidance mechanism is used,the CC can only be found in the middle stage of the search.Based on the point of view(2),if only the response selection mechanism is adopted,the CC can only be foundin the late stage of the search.Based on the point of view(3),if both the attention guidance and response selection play a role,the CC can only be found in the middle and late stages of the search.This study includes the following four experiments:Experiment one was to verify the effect of the previous studies on the CC and the eye movement rule under the condition of single target,and to compare with the possible target position.Experiment one is a study of eye movement under the classical contextual cue effect paradigm.Taking 15 college students as subjects.The experimental materials were composed of 12 distractor letters "L" and ltarget letter "T".The experimental design was 2(scene types:repetition,novel)x 7(time windows:1-7)withinsubjects design.The results showed that:(1)In the reaction time,the interaction of scene types and time windows was significant.With continuous learning,searching repeated scenes was significantly shorter than searching novel scenes,participants received significant CC;(2)In the early stage of search,repeated scenes were significantly shorter than novel scenes;(3)In the middle stage of search,repeated scenes were significantly shorter than novel scenes,the interaction was also significant;(4)In the late stage of search,repeated scenes were significantly longer than novel scenes;(5)In the average fixation count,repeated scenes were significantly fewer than novel scenes;(6)In the average fixation duration of single fixation,repeated scenes were significantly longer than novel scenes;(7)In the scan path ratio,repeated scenes were significantly less than novel scenes.Experiment two was to explore when a repeated scene matching two possible target locations,how to influence the CC and the eye movement pattern.Experiment two used two possible target locations paradigm.Taking 15 college students as subjects.The materials and design of the experiment two were the same as those of the experiment one.The results showed that:(1)In the reaction time,the interaction of scene types and time windows was significant.With continuous learning,searching repeated scenes was significantly shorter than searching novel scenes,participants received significant CC;(2)In the early stage of search,the main effect of scene types and the interaction were not significant;(3)In the middle stage of search,repeated scenes were significantly shorter than novel scenes;(4)In the late stage of search,repeated scenes were significantly longer than novel scenes;(5)In the average fixation count,repeated scenes were significantly fewer than novel scenes;(6)In the average fixation duration of single fixation,repeated scenes were significantly longer than novel scenes;(7)In the scan path ratio,repeated scenes were significantly less than novel scenes.Experiment three was to explore when a repeated scene matching four possible target locations,how to influence the CC and the eye movement pattern.Experiment three used four possible target locations paradigm.Taking 14 college students as subjects.The materials and design of the experiment two were the same as those of the experiment one.The results showed that:(1)In the reaction time,the interaction of scene types and time windows was marginal significant.With continuous learning,searching repeated scenes was significantly shorter than searching novel scenes,participants received significant CC;(2)In the early stage of search,repeated scenes were significantly shorter than novel scenes;(3)In the middle stage of search,repeated scenes were significantly shorter than novel scenes;(4)In the late stage of search,repeated scenes were significantly longer than novel scenes;(5)In the average fixation count,repeated scenes were significantly fewer than novel scenes;(6)In the average fixation duration of single fixation,repeated scenes were significantly longer than novel scenes;(7)In the scan path ratio,repeated scenes were significantly less than novel scenes.Experiment four was to explore when only keep the familiarity of the repeated scenes,how to influence the CC and the eye movement pattern.Experiment four used random target location paradigm.Taking 14 college students as subjects.The materials and design of the experiment two were the same as those of the experiment one.The results showed that:(1)In the reaction time,the interaction of scene types and time windows was not significant,participants didn’t receive CC;(2)In the early stage and late stage of search,no CC was found;(3)In the middle stage of search,repeated scenes were significantly shorter than novel scenes;(4)In the average fixation count,repeated scenes were significantly fewer than novel scenes;(5)In the average fixation duration of single fixation,repeated scenes were significantly longer than novel scenes;(6)In the scan path ratio,repeated scenes were significantly less than novel scenes.Under the conditions of this study,the following conclusions are obtained:(1)Under the condition of multiple possible target locations,participants can acquire significant CC implicitly.(2)The predictability of the target location and the familiarity of the context help to show the CC.(3)Whether the single target condition or the multiple target condition,the advantage of CC comes from the middle stage of the search,supported attentional guidance.(4)In the search process,the CC was shown as the reduction in the average number of fixations and the search path was more direct.