Information processing in visual search: A continuous flow conception and experimental results

This paper reexamines the visual search process, and visual information processing more generally, from a perspective of the continuous flow of information and responses through the visual system. The results from three experiments are reported which support the continuous flow conception: Information accumulates gradually in the visual system, with concurrent priming of responses. The first two experiments investigated the processing of display stimuli which varied in size and figure-ground contrast in a nonsearch task, and provided evidence confirming a continuous flow model. Experiment 3 employed an asynchronous onset of target and noise and provided convergent evidence of the accumulative nature of information and response priming in visual processing.