Conducted 2 experiments in which 20 female and 2 male undergraduates responded either "yes" or "no" that a visually displayed 2-dimensional pattern had been contained in a previously memorized set of 3 patterns. 2 of the 3 patterns shared 1 high-probability attribute (HP). The structure of the stimulus sets was such that the probability of a yes response given the HP attribute was greater than the probability of a no response. Results show that RTs to patterns having the HP attribute were faster than patterns not containing the HP attribute for yes responses but slower for no responses. It is concluded that the comparison stage in a memory search task is characterized by self-terminating feature testing and that the comparison and response selection stages can occur in parallel. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)