SEarch via Recursive Rejection

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SEarch via Recursive Rejection (SERR) is a model of visual search. Most models of visual search, assuming spatially serial processing of conjunction stimuli, are limited when displays contain 2 identical conjunction targets:

• Firstly they fail to account for the slopes of the target-absent reaction time (RT)/display size functions, both when the target-present response requires the detection of only 1 of the 2 targets and when it requires the detection of both targets.
• Secondly, under redundant target conditions, the probability of «fast» present RTs is greater than that expected from the independent (serial) processing of the target stimuli.

However the SERR model can account for human search performance under dual-target conditions. In SERR, simple form conjunctions are coded and grouped (on the basis of their similarity) in a spatially parallel manner, and targets are detected through the activation of a temporary «template» or through the recursive rejection of grouped distractors.

Key texts

Papers

• Humphreys, G. W. & Muller, H. M. (1993) SEarch via Recursive Rejection (SERR): A connectionist model of visual search. Cognitive Psychology, 25, 43-110.
• Muller, H. M., Humphreys, G. W. & Donnelly, N. (1994) Search via recursive rejection (SERR): Visual search for single and dual form-conjunction targets. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 20, 235-258.
• Muller, H. M., Humphreys, G. W. & Olson, A. C. (1996). SEarch via Recursive Rejection (SERR): Evidence with normal and neurological subjects. In R. Wright (Ed.), Visual Attention. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Additional material

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