Categorical influences on chromatic search asymmetries

The experiments reported here investigate asymmetries in performance of speeded target detection and visual search tasks using colourful stimuli. Experiment 1 found evidence of asymmetries in the performance of within-category trials in both tasks. Two further experiments consider possible explanations. The results of Experiment 2 suggest these asymmetries are not linked to changes in the frequency with which individual stimuli appear in trials. A third experiment shows that asymmetries in performance of the two tasks are accompanied by changes in stimulus categorization, thus providing evidence that asymmetries in performance of search tasks may represent a language driven category effect. In the Discussion section, theories describing how category information might give rise to the asymmetries found are considered.