Feature-integration theory that which explains the relative ease of conducting feature searches and the relative difficulty of conducting conjunction searches.
Feature integration theory refers to a proposal that perception of familiar stimuli occurs in two (2) stages. The first, automatic, stage involves the perception of object features. The second, attentional, stage involves the integration and unification of those features. Feature integration theory is a sequence of steps proposed by Treisman to explain how an object is broken down into features and how these features are recombined to result in a perception of the object.