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Does a “wait-and-search” strategy account for the item heterogeneity benefit in multiple object tracking?

Poster Session D - Monday, March 9, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Rachel A. Eng¹ (), Naseem Al-Aidroos¹, Lana M. Trick¹; ¹University of Guelph

Multiple object tracking (MOT) is the ability to visually track a set of moving targets among moving distractors. Tracking performance typically benefits from item heterogeneity. Specifically, once motion stops, observers more accurately report target locations if, during motion, each item was unique in colour and/or shape, rather than identical. This benefit may reflect improved tracking ability. Alternatively, it may render continuous tracking unnecessary by enabling a “wait-and-search” strategy, where participants wait to relocate targets based on their identities just before motion stops and items become identical. Previous attempts to discourage the “wait-and-search” strategy (i.e., articulatory suppression, unpredictable motion duration) do not eliminate the heterogeneity benefit. To further assess if the heterogeneity benefit reflects a “wait-and-search” strategy, we compared visual search and MOT accuracy. Participants searched for or tracked four targets among 12 distractors. In both tasks, heterogeneity was introduced by making each item a unique combination of four colours and four shapes. The four targets could have the same colour, shape, or no common features. The search task mirrored the MOT task except that items were hidden behind identical diamonds during motion and participants were informed that items may switch places behind the diamonds. Thus, the search task could only be completed through a “wait-and-search” strategy. Search accuracy when targets had the same shape or no common features was significantly worse than MOT accuracy, suggesting that participants cannot solely rely on a “wait-and-search” strategy to produce the MOT heterogeneity benefit.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Spatial