Abstract
Where and what we attend to is not only determined by what we are currently looking for but also by what we have encountered in the past. Recent studies suggest that biasing the probability by which distractors appear at locations in visual space may lead to attentional suppression of high-probability distractor locations, which effectively reduces capture by a distractor but also impairs target selection at this location. However, in many of these studies introducing a high-probability distractor location was equivalent to increasing the probability of the target appearing in any of the other locations (i.e., the low-probability distractor locations). Here, we investigate an alternative interpretation of previous findings according to which attentional selection at high-probability distractor locations is not suppressed but selection at low-probability distractor locations is facilitated. In two visual search tasks, we found no evidence for this hypothesis: there was no evidence for spatial suppression when only target probabilities were biased (Experiment 1), nor did the spatial suppression disappear when only the distractor probabilities were biased while the target probabilities were equal (Experiment 2). We conclude that recurrent presentation of a distractor in a specific location leads to attentional suppression of that location through a mechanism that is unaffected by any regularities regarding the target position.
Highlights
When interacting with the world, our visual system is constantly exposed to a vast amount of information
It is typically assumed that selection priority due to these three mechanisms is represented on a shared priority map that is a topographical representation of selection priority (Failing & Theeuwes, 2018; Theeuwes, 2019)
Trials in which participants did not respond in time as well as trials in which reaction times (RTs) were larger or smaller than 2.5 standard deviations from the average response time per block per participant were excluded from the analyses
Summary
When interacting with the world, our visual system is constantly exposed to a vast amount of information. Theeuwes, 2010; Wolfe & Gray, 2007), more recent evidence suggests that selection is often driven by past episodes of selection It is typically assumed that selection priority due to these three mechanisms is represented on a shared priority map that is a topographical representation of selection priority (Failing & Theeuwes, 2018; Theeuwes, 2019). In this framework, moment-to-moment selection is determined by the highest activity on that map in a winner-takes-all fashion. The influence of selection history on current selection has been demonstrated in its most basic form in research on (intertrial) priming (e.g., Maljkovic & Nakayama, 1994; Pinto, Olivers, & Theeuwes, 2005), but can be observed due to, for example, reward (e.g., Anderson, Laurent, and Yantis, 2011; Failing & Theeuwes, 2014; Le Pelley, Pearson, Griffiths, & Beesley, 2015) or threat (e.g., Nissens, Failing, & Theeuwes, 2017; Schmidt, Belopolsky, & Theeuwes, 2015), and persists even when the previously
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
