Context and reminder effects in a visual search analog of latent inhibition

Two experiments used a two-phase visual search task in which participants identified the presence of a unique shape against a background of homogeneous distractors. Latent inhibitionlike (LI) effects (poorer performance when the target had previously been a distractor and the distracter had been a target as compared to a novel target with distracters that had been a target) and novel pop-out (NPO) effects were examined. In both experiments, and as in previous studies, robust LI was obtained, but unlike those studies, there was no NPO. The LI-like effect was strengthened by the presence of reminder trials (Experiment I) and weakened by a change of context from the preexposure to the test phase (Experiment 2). The results support the position that the visual search paradigm taps the same processes as those in traditional LI experiments that assess learning deficits as a function of preexposure to irrelevant stimuli, (C) 2001 Academic Press.