Contextual cueing in dynamic visual contexts

This study investigates contextual cueing (CC) in a novel visual search paradigm involving dynamic visual contexts, in which scenes evolve over time. CC refers to the facilitation of visual search through repeated exposure to spatial configurations, typically reflected in faster response time (RT) for repeated (old) display relative to novel displays. Although CC effects have been well established in static array-based displays and static naturalistic scenes, comparatively little is known about how contextual learning operates under dynamic scenes that more closely approximate real-world environments. The present study introduces a dynamic-context CC task in which participants search for a target embedded within complex scenes in which the viewpoint changes dynamically. On each trial, participants indicate the identity of the target by pressing one of two response keys corresponding to the target type (T or L). Across repeated exposures, certain scenes reoccur while others remain novel, allowing the assessment of whether spatial-contextual regularities are learned and subsequently guide attention under dynamic conditions. To prevent learning of a fixed target identity, in repeated scenes the identity of the target (T and L) is random across occurrences, such that participants must locate the target on each trial rather than rely on scene memory. Participants complete five epochs of visual search. The first epoch constitutes the initial exposure to repeated scenes and is treated as an encoding phase, whereas subsequent epochs allow learning to accrue. The primary outcome measure is RT on correct trials. The primary index of CC is the difference in RT between repeated and novel trials at Epoch 5, reflecting performance after learning has stabilised. In addition, learning dynamics across epochs will shed light on how the repeated-novel difference evolves over time.