Visual Search Vs Feature Integration Theory

Attention is the ability to focus on specific stimuli, which has become a key area of interest. It is an essential element to what we perceive and brings key aspects to our awareness. Binding is a function of attention where features, including colour, size, form and location, unite to devise a perception of an object (Goldstein, 2015). Binding has been tested using the visual search experiment as it proves useful when studying a conjunctive search. Goldstein (2015) suggests that visual search is an everyday process where we look for a certain object among several others. The visual search experiment has two types of searches, feature and conjunctive. Nordfang & Wolfe (2014) suggests conjunctive searches share similarities to the target such as colour, size or shape. In contrast feature searches are parallel to the target and are visually different (Nordfang & Wolfe, 2014). The visual search study was encountered by Treisman and Gelade in 1980. They investigated focused attention and claimed that the feature integration theory must be applied subsequently to each stimuli to define its features (Treisman & Gelade, 1980). Goldstein (2015) suggests that the feature integration theory is when we perceive an object, we separate it into features and then combine them to form our perception. Treisman and Gelade (1980) found …show more content…
This study opens up future research into how a visual search process varies across mental health issues. As predicted, feature searches did not influence significantly by the number of distractors for either groups. Reaction time increased in the conjunctive searches for both groups, yet conjunctive searches appeared to be impaired. Landy et al., (2015) found that patients with DLB and AD have similar impaired abilities in the visual