Mahsa Zafarmand¹, Xinying Zou², Nancy Carlisle³; ¹Lehigh University, ²Lehigh University, ³Lehigh University

Traditional models of visual attention emphasize physical features like color, orientation, and shape in guiding target selection. However, real-world scenes and memory involve more complex interactions, including semantic relationships between objects. These relationships, learned over time, significantly influence attention, often disrupting performance when semantically related distractors (SRDs) are present. Research has shown that SRDs typically prolong response times (RTs) and decrease accuracy by competing for attentional resources. While visual search tasks depend on prior knowledge of the target, optimal performance requires a clear mental representation. Research suggests that visual cues are more effective than verbal cues, reflecting the visual system’s preference for direct visual inputs. While semantic studies predominantly use verbal cues and visual search research relies on visual cues, this study bridges the two domains to examine how cue specificity impacts semantic biases and attentional processes. We hypothesized that the influence of SRDs may depend on the specificity of the target cue (visual and verbal).We manipulated cue type (verbal vs. visual), target presence (target present vs. absent), and SRD presence (SRD present vs. absent) for twenty-eight participants. Results demonstrated that visual cues significantly enhanced RT and accuracy compared to verbal cues. Target presence facilitated faster RTs and improved accuracy, while SRD presence slowed RTs and reduced accuracy. SRDs had a more pronounced effect in target-absent conditions, and this effect was stronger for verbal cues than visual cues. Although the three-way interaction for RT was non-significant, it reached significance for accuracy, highlighting the larger SRD effect in verbal cue conditions.In conclusion, visual cues proved superior in guiding attention during search tasks, emphasizing the visual system’s reliance on direct representations. The findings reveal that SRDs exert greater influence on accuracy in verbal cue scenarios, underscoring the role of cue type in activating semantic relationships and shaping attentional dynamics.