When does what matter to where? Identity–location integration in spatial context learning.

In contextual cueing, search times are reduced for repeated displays compared with new displays. The effect was thought to depend solely on the repeating locations, assuming an initial stage where object shape and location are processed independently. Makovski (2016, 2018), however, showed that contextual cueing with object images developed only when both location and identity were repeated. We investigate the roles of identity and visual distinctiveness on contextual cueing using Chinese characters, which are meaningful to Chinese speakers, but whose square-like shapes are visually less distinctive. Experiment 1 confirmed that contextual cueing only occurred when both locations and identities were repeated during Chinese readers' character search. Experiment 2 reduced the importance of identity by having readers search for an identity-irrelevant dot on an array of Chinese characters. Here, we found that contextual cueing occurred with spatial repetition alone. Experiment 3 used the dot-search task, but against an array of objects. Contextual cueing was observed only when both location and identity were repeated, suggesting that identity-location binding was more automatic with objects than with Chinese characters. Our findings raise important questions about the nature of identity-location bindings in contextual cueing, suggesting that this binding is modulated by task requirements and visual distinctiveness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).