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The “red‐alert” effect in visual search: Evidence from human electrophysiology
Author(s) -
FortierGauthier Ulysse,
Dell'Acqua Roberto,
Jolicœur Pierre
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/psyp.12050
Subject(s) - psychology , meridian (astronomy) , visual search , electrophysiology , event related potential , color vision , cognitive psychology , communication , neuroscience , cognition , artificial intelligence , computer science , physics , astronomy
Participants had to determine the orientation of a segment inside a target color circle among other gray distractor circles. The target circle was either red or green and was accompanied in the display by a distractor in the other color. To dissociate event‐related potentials of target and distractor processing, one of them was on the vertical meridian and the other in a lateral position. In Experiment 1, the target color was indicated on a per‐trial basis and, in Experiment 2, on a per‐block basis. The results revealed the N 2pc elicited by red targets had an earlier latency relative to the N 2pc elicited by green targets. Contralateral responses of positive polarity linked to distractor inhibition were found only with red lateral distractors. The results suggest that the choice of colors to distinguish targets from distractors may play a role in visual search performance and in the functional characterization of event‐related lateralizations.