The representation of contextual cue is stimulus-specific yet its expression is flexible

Background: Contextual cueing refers to the phenomenon in which individuals utilize frequently encountered environmental contexts, comprised of distractors, as cues to expedite a target search. Due to the con fl ict between the widespread occurrence of contextual cue transfer and the observed impact of changing the identity of distractors on contextual cue learning, the content of contextual cue representations remains contentious. Considering the independent nature of contextual cue learning and expression, our proposition is twofold: (1) Contextual cue representations are stimulus-speci fi c, and (2) their expression is highly fl exible. Methods: To validate the model, two experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 aimed to con fi rm the hypothesis that contextual cue representations are stimulusspeci fi c. We manipulated the identity consistency of distractors within repeated scenes during contextual cue learning. Dif fi culty in contextual cue learning under the identity-changing condition would suggest the necessity of identity within contextual cue representation, indicating the stimulus-speci fi c nature of these representations. Experiment 2 was designed to af fi rm the conclusion of Experiment 1 and explore the fl exibility in the expression of contextual cue representations. This experiment comprised two phases: learning and testing. During the learning phase, participants were exposed to two sets of repeated scenes in different colors under two learning conditions: load and no-load. Working memory load was introduced to interfere with the expression to prevent it from becoming automatic. In the subsequent testing phase, the colors of the two scene sets were interchanged to impede retrieval based on identity. If both load and no-load conditions demonstrate similar levels of contextual cue effects during the testing phase, it implies the fl exibility in the expression of contextual cue representations and con fi rms the conclusion of Experiment 1. Results: In Experiment 1, a notable contextual cue learning effect was observed under the identity-consistent condition ( p = 0.001). However, this effect was not evident under the identity-changing condition ( p = 0.286). This fi nding strongly supports the stimulus-speci fi c nature of contextual cue representation. In Experiment 2, the contextual cueing effect appeared but did not show a signi fi cant difference between the two conditions ( t(23) = 0.02, p = 0.987, BF 10 = 0.215), indicating the cognitive system ' s ability to fl exibly rede fi ne retrieval cues. This adaptability aligns with our hypothesis and con fi rms the high fl exibility in the expression process of contextual cue representations and con fi rms the conclusion of Experiment 1.