In parallel search, each item in memory is probed in parallel. Response time increases with set size, and the slope is steep for both target and foil trials. Incorrect trials were also removed. Each participant performed four trials for each combination of set size and target presence. The mean data for the group are shown in the figure below.
Error bars one standard errorsof the mean.
The results clearly favor the serial exhaustive search proposal. A linear regression line was computed to find the linear equation that best captures the relationship between set size, presence of the target, and response time. In other words, each additional item in the memory set added 40 ms to the response time, and target trials were on average 59 ms faster than foil trials. However, the weak difference between foil and target trials is somewhat surprising. If you'd like to take a look at the data yourself, download this .