The principle of good continuation in space and time can guide visual search in the absence of spatial priming or contextual cueing

Previous research has shown that repetition of the same target features or target spatial position over time can improve search. It has also been shown that a consistent relationship between a given target and the features or spatial arrangement of the accompanying distractors can similarly improve search. Thus it appears that the spatial and non-spatial characteristics of the target and/or the distractors are somehow retained by the visual system and used to guide visual processes such as object recognition and search. Here, we introduced a paradigm for manipulating the sequential structure of target position across trials independently of target features and contextual information. Results show that visual search is improved or impaired, respectively, when the target appears at an implicitly expected or unexpected position, according to the principle of good continuation of the target's successive positions across trials. These results are not merely due to bottom - up spatial priming, since facilitation also occurs for positions far from those recently occupied by the target, nor to contextual cueing, since the relative positions of the target and distractors are kept constant. These results demonstrate that the principle of good continuation in space and time can guide visual selective attention and ease search processes and object recognition.