APA Dictionary of Psychology

a two-stage theory of visual attention. In the first (preattentive) stage, basic features (e.g., color, contrast, location in space, shape) are processed automatically, independently, and in parallel. In the second (attentive) stage, other properties, including relations between features of an object, are processed serially, one object (or group) at a time, and are “bound” together to create a single object that is consciously perceived. Also called feature-integration hypothesis. See binding hypothesis. See also textons. [proposed in 1980 by British psychologist Anne Marie Treisman (1935–  )]