Global–local consistency benefits memory‐guided tracking of a moving target

INTRODUCTION: Previous findings have demonstrated that several Gestalt principles do facilitate VSTM performance in change detection tasks. However, few studies have investigated the role of and time‐course of global–local consistency in motion perception. METHODS: Participants were required to track a moving target surrounded by three different backgrounds: blank, inconsistent, or consistent. Global–local objects were be bound to move together (covariation). During the PMT, participants had to follow the moving target with their eyes and react as fast as possible when the target had just vanished behind the obstruction or would arrive at a predetermined point of interception. Variable error (VE) and constant error (CE) of estimated time‐to‐contact (TTC) and gain of smooth pursuit eye movements were calculated in various conditions and analyzed qualitatively. RESULTS: Experiment 1 established the basic finding that VSTM performance could benefit from global–local consistency. Experiment 2 extended this finding by eye‐tracking device. Both in visible phase and in occluded phase, CEs were smaller for the target in a consistent background than for the target in an inconsistent background and for the target in a blank background, with both differences significant (ps < .05). However, the difference in VE among three conditions was not significant. At early stage (100–250 ms), later stage (2750–3000 ms), and termination stage (5750–6000 ms) of smooth pursuit, the velocity gains were higher in the trials with consistent backgrounds than in the trials with inconsistent backgrounds and blank backgrounds (ps < .001). With the exception of 100–250 ms phase, the means did not differ between the inconsistent background and the blank background trials (ps > .1). CONCLUSIONS: Global–local consistency could be activated within the first few hundred milliseconds to prioritize the deployment of attention and eye movement to component target. Meanwhile, it also removes ambiguity from motion tracking and TTC estimation under some unpredictable conditions, leading to the consistency advantage during smooth‐pursuit termination phase. Global–local consistency may act as an important information source to TTC estimation and oculomotor response in PMT.