{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T09:18:06Z","timestamp":1787822286833,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787788800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"China National Social Science","award":["BBA240045"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["BBA240045"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Behav. Sci.","Behavioral Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Visual search is thought to operate via a priority map that weights targets against distractors. Any process that modulates the weight assigned to distractors can influence search efficiency. Prior work on joint visual search has examined how distractors matching a partner\u2019s target receive enhanced weighting and impair individual performance. The present study asks instead whether the items the partner must reject are processed more efficiently in a joint context, thereby improving individual search efficiency. One possible account is enhanced distractor suppression, on which such items are down-weighted more effectively when another person is rejecting them concurrently. Participants searched shared multi-item displays for color-defined targets, and search slopes (response time per item) were analyzed with linear mixed-effects models. Experiment 1 (N = 114) compared joint, individual, and passive observer conditions. Experiment 2 (N = 76) compared in-group and out-group pairs formed via a minimal-group paradigm. In Experiment 1 the joint slope was shallower than both the individual and passive observer slopes. In Experiment 2 the slope was shallower for out-group than for in-group pairs, revealing a group-based modulation of joint search efficiency. On log-transformed response times, this difference appeared instead as a constant proportional advantage. Although search slopes index overall efficiency rather than directly measuring suppression, and alternative processes could also contribute to shallower slopes, these findings are consistent with a distractor suppression account of what makes joint visual search efficient.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bs16091503","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T08:02:27Z","timestamp":1787817747000},"page":"1503","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["What Makes Joint Visual Search Efficient? A Distractor Suppression Account"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-5680-2640","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xinyue","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Psychology, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaolong","family":"Xiang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Psychology, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mengfei","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Psychology, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiahao","family":"Lu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Humanities and Social Science, Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou 341000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8560-3203","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jun","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Psychology, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321000, China"},{"name":"Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory for the Mental Health and Crisis Intervention of Children and Adolescents, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3821","DOI":"10.1177\/02654075221110630","article-title":"Self-expansion motivation and inclusion of others in self: An updated review","volume":"39","author":"Aron","year":"2022","journal-title":"Journal of Social and Personal Relationships"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.18637\/jss.v067.i01","article-title":"Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4","volume":"67","author":"Bates","year":"2015","journal-title":"Journal of Statistical Software"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"433","DOI":"10.1163\/156856897X00357","article-title":"The psychophysics toolbox","volume":"10","author":"Brainard","year":"1997","journal-title":"Spatial Vision"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dale, R., Kirkham, N. 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