Cue-Driven Changes in Detection Strategies Reflect Trade-Offs in Strategic Efficiency

Abstract

We examined performance in a cued detection task when a peripheral cue was either 50% or 100% valid, tested in separate experiments. We combined a Posner cueing task with a double factorial manipulation of stimulus salience. Unlike previous investigations in which participants responded to either target, we employed an AND decision task in which a target-present decision required there to be a target at both locations. When the cue was 50% valid, all the participants adopted parallel exhaustive processing to detect redundant targets with unlimited to limited capacity. When the cue was 100% valid, three participants, who performed this experiment first, adopted serial exhaustive processing. B..