Interference from multi-dimensional objects during feature and conjunctiondiscriminations

Feature discrimination performance within an attended object and interferen ce from irrelevant, multi-dimensional objects (distractors) were examined i n a two-choice, response compatibility paradigm. Results showed that the am ount of interference by multi-dimensional distracters was dependent on thre e factors: (1) the discriminability of the incompatible, task-relevant dist racter features; (2) the number of incompatible, task-relevant distracter f eatures; and (3) whether the task-relevant, incompatible features matched t he task goals. The most interesting finding was that additive priming effec ts were found for multiple, task-relevant features that matched the task go als, whether these features were present in the attended object or in the i gnored object. Models that assume that each task-relevant feature primes it s corresponding decision/response asynchronously and that this priming is c ombined to meet a decision/response criterion (at least when attended) can account for distracter interference during conjunction discriminations. Imp lications of these findings for feature integration models, template models , and a response selection model are discussed.