Axis of rotation as a basic feature in visual search

Searching for a “Q” among “O”s is easier than the opposite search (Treisman & Gormican in Psychological Review, 95, 15–48, 1988 ). In many cases, such “search asymmetries” occur because it is easier to search when a target is defined by the presence of a feature (i.e., the line terminator defining the tail of the “Q”), rather than by its absence. Treisman proposed that features that produce a search asymmetry are “basic” features in visual search (Treisman & Gormican in Psychological Review, 95, 15–48, 1988 ; Treisman & Souther in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 114, 285–310, 1985 ). Other stimulus attributes, such as color, orientation, and motion, have been found to produce search asymmetries (Dick, Ullman, & Sagi in Science , 237 , 400–402, 1987 ; Treisman & Gormican in Psychological Review, 95, 15–48, 1988 ; Treisman & Souther in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 114, 285–310, 1985 ). Other stimulus properties, such as facial expression, produce asymmetries because one type of item (e.g., neutral faces) demands less attention in search than another (e.g., angry faces). In the present series of experiments, search for a rolling target among spinning distractors proved to be more efficient than searching for a spinning target among rolling distractors. The effect does not appear to be due to differences in physical plausibility, direction of motion, or texture movement. Our results suggest that the spinning stimuli demand less attention, making search through spinning distractors for a rolling target easier than the opposite search.