Statistical context learning in visual search: distinct electrophysiological signatures of contextual guidance and context suppression

Facilitation of visual search by repeated distractor contexts is typically studied employing distractor configurations that are 100% predictive of the target location. Yet, real-world contexts vary in predictivity. Here, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to explore how visual search facilitation arises from two distinct processing modes – contextual guidance and context suppression – that depend on the predictivity of distractor contexts, comparing repeated distractor arrangements that were either predictive or non-predictive of the target location against a baseline of non-repeated arrangements.