Journal of cognitive neuroscience
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Visual search is controlled by representations of target objects (attentional templates). Such templates are often activated in response to verbal descriptions of search targets, but it is unclear whether search can be guided effectively by such verbal cues. We measured ERPs to track the activation of attentional templates for new target objects defined by word cues. ⋯ N2pc components to target objects in the first display were strongly affected by differences in object imageability (i.e., the ability of word cues to activate a target-matching visual representation). These differences were no longer present for the second presentation of the same target objects, indicating that a single perceptual encounter is sufficient to activate a precise attentional template. Our results demonstrate the superiority of visual over verbal target specifications in the control of visual search, highlight the fact that verbal descriptions are more effective for some objects than others, and suggest that the attentional templates that guide search for particular real-world target objects are analog visual representations.