Kim, M. -S. & Yi, D. -J. (2000). The nature of location in location-based selection: Evidence from a symbolic spatial probe task. Korean Journal of Experimental & Cognitive Psychology, 12 (1), 15-26.

How does the visual system encode and select the location of visual object? To examine the question, we used a symbolic spatial probe technique and observed the relationship between the peripheral location of search elements and the symbolic orientation of a cental arrow-probe. In two experiments, probe responses were faster when the arrow pointed to the target location than when it pointed to one of the distractor locations, indicating that the discrimination of the arrow was sensitive to the location of the target and the spatial relationship between the target and distractors. It is possible that some more abstract type of spatial coding occurred during search, and that visual selection occurred based not (or not only) on a physical or absolute location per se, but on symboic or relative spatial relation. Based on the evidence, implications for cognitive theories of spatial attention were be discussed.

For more information;

Kim, M.-S., & Robertson, L. C. (2001). Implicit representations of space after bilateral parietal lobe damage. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 13(8), 1080-1870.