Region segmentation and contextual cuing in visual search

Contextual information provides an important source for behavioral orienting. For instance, in the contextual-cuing paradigm, repetitions of the spatial layout of elements in a search display can guide attention to the target location. The present study explored how this contextual-cuing effect is influenced by the grouping of search elements. In Experiment 1, four nontarget items could be arranged collinearly to form an imaginary square. The presence of such a square eliminated the contextual-cuing effect, despite the fact that the square's location still had a predictive value for the target location. Three follow-up experiments demonstrated that other types of grouping abolished contextual cuing in a similar way and that the mere presence of a task-irrelevant singleton had only a diminishing effect (by half) on contextual cuing. These findings suggest that a segmented, salient region can interfere with contextual cuing, reducing its predictive impact on search.