Does a history of involuntary selection generate attentional biases?

Abstract

Voluntarily allocating attention to task-relevant features engenders attentional biases for frequently attended stimuli, even when they become irrelevant (ie., selection history). Little is known, however, to what extent effortful, voluntary attention is a necessary component in the formation of such selection biases. Do task-irrelevant, abrupt onsets, which reflexively draw attention to a particular location, engender attentional selection biases for involuntarily attended locations, biases that persist in the absence of explicit exogenous cues? Using a preregistered data collection and analysis plan (accepted, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, final manuscript in preparation), we manipulated spatial attention during an orientation discrimination task: two Gabor patches (randomly and independently rotated clockwise or counterclockwise of vertical) were simultaneously presented (8° left/right of fixation); a postcue indicated which was the target. To generate different selection histories for left/right locations, we delivered precues more often to one location (2:1 ratio) during the first half of the study (most-cued side counterbalanced across observers, equal numbers valid and invalid trials at each location). In the second half, no precues were presented, and observers continued the orientation discrimination task. If exogenous attentional selection generates persistent biases, performance should be better on the previously most-cued side, relative to least-cued side. As expected, abrupt onsets reflexively modulated visual processing in the first half: task accuracy increased, and RTs decreased, when the precue appeared near the forthcoming target (valid trials), relative to the distractor (invalid trials). When precues were removed in the second half, however, we found no evidence that exogenous selection history modulated task performance: task accuracy and RTs at previously most/least cued sides were statistically indistinguishable; precue-free follow-up sessions (one day and one week later) also showed indistinguishable performance at left/right locations. Thus, unlike voluntarily directed attention, reflexively allocating attention may not be sufficient to engender historically-contingent selection biases.