Location-specific target expectancies in visual search

sObservers searched for local target letters in global letter configurations. Different targets appeared with different frequencies in the different locations of the configurations. Experiment 1 showed that in each location, the target that was presented there more frequently was detected faster. Experiment 2 indicated that this location-specific target probability effect was due to perceptual facilitation and that facilitation was not restricted to letters but could be generalized to nonletter stimuli. Experiments 3 and 4 showed that the location distribution of targets could be acquired for 2 global configurations concurrently and that facilitation referred to locations within the configurations, not to screen locations. The results indicate a general sensitivity of the visual system for the location of details in global configurations.