Visual search training benefits from the integrative effect of enhanced covert attention and optimized overt eye movements

Abstract

Training serves as an effective approach to improve visual search performance when the target does not automatically pop out from the distractors. In the present study, we trained participants on a conjunction visual search task and examined the training effects in behavior and eye movement. The results of Experiments 1 to 4 showed that training improved behavioral performance and reduced the number of saccades and overall scanning time. Training also increased the search initiation time before the first saccade and the proportion of trials in which the participants correctly identified the target without any saccade, but these effects were modulated by stimulus’ parameters. In Experiment 5, we simultaneously recorded eye movements and electroencephalography signals and the results revealed significant N2 posterior contralateral (N2pc) components after the stimulus onset (i.e., stimulus-locked) and before the first saccade (i.e., saccade-locked) when the search target was the trained one. These N2pc components can be considered as the neural signatures for the enhanced covert attention to the trained target. Together with the training-induced increase in functional visual field, these mechanisms could support the beneficial effects of increased search initiation time and reduced number of saccades. These findings suggest that visual search training enhanced covert attention to target and optimized overt eye movements to facilitate search performance.