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Satisfaction of search (which we refer to as subsequent search misses)�a decrease in accuracy at detecting a second target after a first target has been found in a visual search�underlies real-world search errors (e.g., tumors may be missed in an X-ray if another tumor already has been found), but little is known about this phenomenon�s cognitive underpinnings. In the present study, we examined subsequent search misses in terms of another, more extensively studied phenomenon: the attentional blink, a decrease in accuracy when a second target appears 200 to 500 ms after a first target is detected in a temporal stream. Participants searched for T-shaped targets among L-shaped distractors in a spatial visual search, and despite large methodological differences between self-paced spatial visual searches and attentional blink tasks, an attentional-blink-like effect accounted for subsequent-search-miss errors. This finding provides evidence that accuracy is negatively affected shortly after a first target is fixated in a self-paced, self-guided visual search.
