Foreground bias: Semantic consistency effects modulated when searching across depth.

Abstract

When processing visual scenes, we tend to prioritize information in the foreground, often at the expense of background information. The foreground bias has been supported by data demonstrating that there are more fixations to foreground, and faster and more accurate detection of targets embedded in foreground. However, it is also known that semantic consistency is associated with more efficient search. Here, we examined whether semantic context interacts with foreground prioritization, either amplifying or mitigating the effect of target semantic consistency. For each scene, targets were placed in the foreground or background and were either semantically consistent or inconsistent with the context of immediately surrounding depth region. Results indicated faster response times (RTs) for foreground and semantically consistent targets, replicating established effects. More importantly, we found the magnitude of the semantic consistency effect was significantly smaller in the foreground than background region. To examine the robustness of this effect, in Experiment 2, we strengthened the reliability of semantics by increasing the proportion of targets consistent with the scene region to 80%. We found the overall results pattern to replicate the incongruous effect of semantic consistency across depth observed in Experiment 1. This suggests foreground bias modulates the effects of semantics so that performance is less impacted in near space.