Abstract

How does the visual system encode and select the locations of visual objects? To examine the question, we used a symbolic spatial probe technique and observed the relationship between the peripheral location of search elements and the symbolic orientation of a central arrow-probe. In two experiments, probe responses were faster when the arrow pointed to the target location than when it pointed to one of the distractor locations, indicating that discriminating the arrow was sensitive to the location of the target and the spatial relationship between the target and distractors. It is possible that some more abstract type of spatial coding occurred during search, and that visual selection occurred based not (or not only) on a physical or absolute location per se, but on symbolic or relative spatial relation. Based on the evidence, implications for cognitive theories of spatial attention will be discussed.