A Time-Based Two-Stage Model of Visual Selection: Evidence From Standard Visual Search Tasks.
How does the visual system achieve efficient information selection under limited processing capacity is a fundamental question in cognitive psychology. Through three experiments, the present study reveals a time-constrained two-stage visual selection mechanism. Experiment 1's color search tasks demo...
| Published in: | Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception & Performance Vol. 52; no. 2; pp. 213 - 237 |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article |
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American Psychological Association
Feb2026
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=192684551&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 192684551 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00961523 EPH jtl: Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception & Performance issn: 00961523 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Feb2026 vid: 52 iid: 2 pid: 34 pub: American Psychological Association artinfo: ui: 192684551 10.1037/xhp0001383 ppf: 213 ppct: 24 formats: tig: atl: A Time-Based Two-Stage Model of Visual Selection: Evidence From Standard Visual Search Tasks. aug: au: Zheng, Yujie Xin, Keyun Li, Zhi affil: Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University keyword: attention attention window Guided Search serial–parallel processing visual search attention attention window Guided Search serial–parallel processing visual search ab: How does the visual system achieve efficient information selection under limited processing capacity is a fundamental question in cognitive psychology. Through three experiments, the present study reveals a time-constrained two-stage visual selection mechanism. Experiment 1's color search tasks demonstrated bilinear Search Time × Set Size functions, with a clear kink point at 50–100 ms after stimulus onset, showing shallower slopes (2.7–10.4 ms/item) before versus steeper slopes (10.7–20.7 ms/item) after, indicating two distinct processing stages. Experiment 2 extended these findings to digit search: despite capacity differences (color = 7.6 vs. digit = 3.8 items), the critical kink point time remained stable (60–70 ms), suggesting cross-stimulus generalizability. Experiment 3 disrupted this bilinear pattern by delaying search onset, confirming its time dependence. Individual analyses showed unimodal kink point time distributions (peak 60–80 ms) but multimodal set-size distributions, indicating time-driven stage transitions. These findings establish that visual selection has a time-based parallel-to-serial transition, and the early parallel stage has a stimulus-dependent capacity. This two-stage selection model integrates the core tenets of the Guided Search model and attentional window theories, offering a new perspective for the architecture of visual information processing. Public Significance Statement: Because of limited processing capacity in our visual system, we rely on attention to selectively process task-relevant information. Most traditional theories suggest that visual attention selection operates either in a serial (item-by-item) or parallel (cluster-based) manner, depending on stimulus characteristics. This study reveals that visual selection in fact functions through a time-based two-stage process: an initial parallel stage for simultaneous cluster processing, followed by a serial stage for item-by-item processing. The capacity of the parallel stage dynamically adjusts based on stimulus characteristics, functioning like a dynamically adjustable selection window. This newly discovered mechanism could bridge two major attention theories (the Guided Search models and attentional window theories), creating a unified framework that offers a more comprehensive account for attentional phenomena, particularly those showing temporal dynamics. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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