Abrupt-onset Cues Research Articles

The Role of Stimulus Uncertainty and Curiosity in Attention Control.

Most cognitive psychological studies assume that participants in lab-based tasks maintain a single goal based on task instructions. However, people can be motivated by other factors, such as curiosity. We examined if people attend to seemingly task-irrelevant information out of curiosity by manipulating stimulus uncertainty in a cueing paradigm. Participants were presented with an abrupt-onset cue followed by a letter target (E or H). Next, a mask either at the target location (low uncertainty) or at all four locations (high uncertainty) was shown. We expected high uncertainty to induce a state of curiosity that in turn influences the processing of the cue. Cueing effects were greater in the high-uncertainty condition compared to the low-uncertainty condition. In Experiment 2, we additionally elicited self-report ratings on curiosity. In sum, target-specific uncertainty leads to greater processing of task-irrelevant peripheral cues across two experiments. We tentatively conclude that uncertainty modulates attention control and further research is necessary to examine if this is indeed due to curiosity induced by uncertainty.

Attentional bias towards happy faces in the dot-probe paradigm: it depends on which task is used

ABSTRACT Two recent articles [Gronchi et al., 2018. Automatic and controlled attentional orienting in the elderly: A dual-process view of the positivity effect. Acta Psychologica, 185, 229–234; Wirth & Wentura, 2020. It occurs after all: Attentional bias towards happy faces in the dot-probe task. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 82(5), 2463–2481] report attentional biases for happy facial expressions in the dot-probe paradigm, albeit in different directions. While Wirth and Wentura report a bias towards happy expressions, Gronchi et al. found a reversed effect. A striking difference between the studies was the task performed by the participants. While in Wirth and Wentura, participants performed a discrimination task, they performed a location task in Gronchi et al. In Experiment 1, we directly compared the two versions of the dot-probe paradigm. With the discrimination task, the bias towards happy faces was replicated. However, the location task yielded a null effect. In Experiment 2, we found a cueing effect with an abrupt onset cue in both tasks. However, for the location task a congruence-sequence effect (a typical characteristic of response-priming processes) occurred. This result suggests that in the location task, attentional processes are confounded with response-priming processes. We recommend to generally use discrimination tasks.

Novel tests of capture by irrelevant abrupt onsets: No evidence for a mediating role of search task difficulty during color search

According to the attentional dwelling hypothesis, task-irrelevant abrupt-onset cues capture attention in a stimulus-driven way by eliciting spatial shifts and further dwelling at cue position until target onset. Consequently, search can be facilitated for targets at cued locations relative to uncued locations. Critically, effects of stimulus-driven capture can go undetected in mean reaction times and error rates when search is too easy. In contrast, according to the priority accumulation framework (PAF), cueing effects for task-irrelevant cues differ from cueing effects by task-relevant cues. Most critically, cueing effects by irrelevant cues do not necessarily index spatial shifts and more dwelling but rather retrieval of cueing information. We used both behavioral measures (i.e., cueing effects and distractor compatibility effects) and event-related potentials on direct visual orienting activity elicited by the cue (Experiment 2) as well as consequences on target processing (Experiment 1) to investigate whether task-irrelevant abrupt onsets elicited attention shifts and led to further dwelling. We found behavioral support for attentional effects of task-irrelevant cues, surprisingly, however, only when search displays remained on-screen until response. We found no support for the attentional dwelling hypothesis or for PAF in the size of cueing effects as a function of search difficulty. Critically, lateralized ERPs revealed that salience of abrupt onsets per se is not sufficient to elicit spatial shifts during color search. Finally, neurophysiological evidence demonstrates that choices toward the implementation of experimental protocols can dramatically alter behavioral results on attentional effects of salient, but task-irrelevant abrupt onsets and conclusions drawn from them.

Do salient abrupt onsets trigger suppression?

Many studies have indicated that abrupt onsets can capture our attention involuntarily. The present study examined whether task-irrelevant onsets trigger strong suppression of their features, to reduce the ability of the onsets to capture attention. We used a capture-probe paradigm with salient abrupt onsets as precues. Participants performed a search task (70% of the trials) with occasional probe tasks mixed in (30% of the trials). In Experiment 1, two irrelevant-color distractors appeared simultaneously with the target, one of which was always precued by the abrupt onset. The question was whether an abrupt onset cue would promote suppression of the correlated color, thereby impeding recall of probe letters at a location with that color. This did not happen. The same result was obtained in Experiment 2, despite removing the target shape from the probe display to minimize floor effects and despite presenting only one distractor color per trial to further strengthen the onset-color association. In Experiment 3, one of the two irrelevant-color distractors abruptly onsetted 50 ms before the other search elements. Despite efforts to promote suppression of the cued distractor color, probe recall accuracy was again similar for the cued and non-cued distractor colors. We conclude that distractor features are suppressed but that making them especially salient does not noticeably enhance this suppression. The suppression mechanism is therefore geared towards helping observers discriminate between target features and distractor features, not towards beating down the most threatening object.

Attention capture by brief abrupt-onset cues in deaf individuals

Auditory loss in deaf individuals has been associated with an enhancement in the visual modality. Visual attention is one domain where such plasticity-induced changes have been observed, although which specific attentional mechanisms are improved is still not clear. Using a modified spatial cueing paradigm, we examined attention capture in deaf and normal-hearing participants. Brief abrupt-onset cues were presented for 16 ms either in attended or ignored locations. The to-be-attended locations for each trial were indicated by a horizontal or a vertical bar at the centre of the screen. These were presented either in vertical- or horizontal-only blocks or mixed together. We observed greater negative cueing effects in the NH group compared to deaf. Additionally, people with deafness showed greater capture by cues at ignored locations in the slower responses. These findings shed further light on orienting mechanisms in deaf and help in understanding the specificity of the differences in visual processing between deaf and normal-hearing individuals.

Re-examining attention capture at irrelevant (ignored?) locations.

In 2018, Ruthruff and Gaspelin used a modified spatial cuing paradigm in which targets were presented at two locations while abrupt-onset cues could be presented at four locations. They found that performance following cues presented at irrelevant locations was no worse than following no cue or following a centrally presented cue. They concluded, as conveyed by the title of their article (Immunity to Attentional Capture at Ignored Locations) that a spatial attentional control setting had eliminated capture of attention. This conclusion was reached by comparing response time to targets on cue-absent versus irrelevant cues condition. We administered the exact same task in Experiment 1 and observed that responses on irrelevant trials were faster compared with cue absent trials providing support for the "immunity to attention capture claim" made by Ruthruff and Gaspelin (2018). However, cue absent trials may not be the most appropriate baseline condition as they lack the alerting benefit provided by cue-present trials. Thus, equivalent response times (RTs) on trials with absent cues and irrelevant cues observed in Ruthruff and Gaspelin (2018) could have been due to the lack of this alerting benefit. We tested this in Experiment 2 by additionally including a warning beep on every trial as an alerting signal. With this methodological change, we observed that responses were slower on irrelevant trials compared with the cue absent trials suggesting interference from cues at irrelevant locations. This study underscores the importance of using the appropriate baseline while testing attention capture. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Probability cueing induced bias does not modulate attention-capture by brief abrupt-onset cues

ABSTRACT Salient objects, such as abrupt-onsets, can capture attention even when nearly invisible. While the influence of explicit factors on such capture (e.g., task-goals) has been extensively investigated, the role of implicit control settings (e.g., probability cueing) is relatively unknown. We examined whether probability cueing affects attentional capture by masked onset cues. The target was more likely to appear on one hemifield of the display than the other. Saccade latencies indicated that capture by masked cues was identical across high and low-probability hemifields (Experiment 1). The same cues, when unmasked, captured attention more when presented in the high-probability hemifield (Experiment 2). We argue that capture by masked cues is not sensitive to implicitly learned biases, such as probability cueing. These findings support theories proposing that attentional control settings influence masked visual orienting only when set up explicitly.

Testing the top-down contingent capture of attention for abrupt-onset cues: Evidence from cue-elicited N2pc.

Many studies using N2pc as a marker of attentional capture have demonstrated top-down contingent capture for salient color singletons: Among all salient cues that are not predictive of the target location, only cues similar to searched-for target features, and thus, matching to the top-down attentional control settings capture attention. This is reflected in matching cue's elicitation of an N2pc and a cueing effect in behavior, and the absence of the corresponding effects for non-matching cues (with features dissimilar to that of the searched-for targets). Yet, with abrupt-onset cues, corresponding evidence is missing, inviting speculations about the potential of abrupt-onset cues to capture attention followed by quick suppression within the target displays. Here, we used two types of abrupt-onset cues to test if capture by such cues also adheres to the contingent-capture principle: matching abrupt-onset cues with a color similar to the top-down control settings and non-matching abrupt-onset cues with a color different from all searched-for targets. With the help of these cues, top-down contingent capture was supported. Only matching abrupt-onset cues elicited an N2pc and a behavioral cueing effect. Depending on the exact side conditions, non-matching cues either elicited no N2pc or a PD (i.e., evidence of active suppression). Results are discussed against the background of competing theories on attention capture by abrupt-onset cues.

Sudden onsets reflexively drive spatial attention, but those that predict reward do more

The sudden appearance of an unexpected object elicits the automatic allocation of spatial attention. Even without eye movements, effortless, but transient, improvements in perception occur at the onset location. Much is known about the consequences of such exogenously elicited shifts of covert attention, but most research has used stimuli that carry very little, if any, additional information. In everyday life, attention is captured by sudden onsets that, due to past experience, alert us to more than just their appearance. An abundance of recent work has shed light on the interaction of associative learning and attention, leading to refinements in current models of attentional control; in this study, we tested two hypotheses concerning the efficacy of meaning-imbued onsets, specifically those that predict reward, to drive the reflexive allocation of covert spatial attention and to improve task performance more generally. First, spatially uninformative, abrupt-onset cues that are predictive of reward may elicit the involuntary allocation of attention more effectively than nonreward-predictive onsets; second, the presence of peripheral cues that are predictive of reward, regardless of validity, may impact global attentional processes in a spatially nonspecific manner. We paired monetary reward with one of two luminance-defined, abrupt-onset cues and measured each cue's ability to modulate performance in a visual task. Replicating research with nonmeaning–imbued stimuli, both kinds of abrupt onsets reflexively improved visual perception at attended, relative to unattended, locations. However, when features of the onset predicted the availability of monetary reward, enhancements in perception become less constrained, spreading rapidly to other task-relevant locations.

To look or not to look: Subliminal abruptonset cues influence constrained free-choice saccades.

Subliminal cues have been shown to capture attention and modulate manual response behaviour but their impact on eye movement behaviour is not well-studied. In two experiments, we examined if subliminal cues influence constrained free-choice saccades and if this influence is under strategic control as a function of task-relevancy of the cues. On each trial, a display containing four filled circles at the centre of each quadrant was shown. A central coloured circle indicated the relevant visual field on each trial (Up or Down in Experiment 1; Left or Right in Experiment 2). Next, abrupt-onset cues were presented for 16 ms at one of the four locations. Participants were then asked to freely choose and make a saccade to one of the two target circles in the relevant visual field. The analysis of the frequency of saccades, saccade endpoint deviation and saccade latency revealed a significant influence of the relevant subliminal cues on saccadic decisions. Latency data showed reduced capture by spatiallyirrelevant cues under some conditions. These results indicate that spatial attentional control settings as defined in our study could modulate the influence of subliminal abrupt-onset cues on eye movement behaviour. We situate the findings of this study in the attention-capture debate and discuss the implications for the subliminal cueing literature.

Hidden from view: Statistical learning exposes latent attentional capture.

Contingent-capture cueing paradigms have long shown that salient visual stimuli-both abrupt onsets and color singleton cues-fail to reliably capture attention if they do not resemble the search target. There may, however, be latent attentional capture in these situations, based on recent evidence that abrupt-onset cues can capture attention in difficult, but not easy, search displays (Gaspelin, Ruthruff, & Lien in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 42, 1104-1120, 2016). To test this notion, we hypothesized that it should be possible to expose any latent capture generated by cues by means of statistical learning. In two versions of the classic four-location contingent-capture paradigm with easy search displays, cues either matched or mismatched (Exp. 1, color singleton; Experiment 2, abrupt-onset singleton) a target defined by a unique color in an array of distractors. Unbeknownst to participants, in both experiments the mismatch cue predicted the upcoming target location (81.5%), whereas the match cue did not (25%). Replicating typical findings, capture was robust and stable over time for the match cues. Mismatch color cues consistently failed to produce capture throughout the experiment. Importantly, mismatch abrupt-onset cues did produce capture after the first block of trials (i.e., after statistical learning). This dissociation exposes latent capture by abrupt-onset cues. Together, the findings suggest that attentional control sets are not so powerful that all information is filtered out, while also showing that statistical learning is not so powerful that it undermines all top-down control.

Investigating the role of exogenous cueing on selection history formation.

An abundance of recent empirical data suggest that repeatedly allocating visual attention to task-relevant and/or reward-predicting features in the visual world engenders an attentional bias for these frequently attended stimuli, even when they become task irrelevant and no longer predict reward. In short, attentional selection in the past hinders voluntary control of attention in the present. But do such enduring attentional biases rely on a history of voluntary, goal-directed attentional selection, or can they be generated through involuntary, effortless attentional allocation? An abrupt visual onset triggers such a reflexive allocation of covert spatial attention to its location in the visual field, automatically modulating numerous aspects of visual perception. In this Registered Report, we asked whether a selection history that has been reflexively and involuntarily derived (i.e., through abrupt-onset cueing) also interferes with goal-directed attentional control, even in the complete absence of exogenous cues. To build spatially distinct histories of exogenous selection, we presented abrupt-onset cues twice as often at one of two task locations, and as expected, these cues reflexively modulated visual processing: task accuracy increased, and response times (RTs) decreased, when the cue appeared near the target's location, relative to that of the distractor. Upon removal of these cues, however, we found no evidence that exogenous selection history modulated task performance: task accuracy and RTs at the previously most-cued and previously least-cued sides were statistically indistinguishable. Thus, unlike voluntarily directed attention, involuntary attentional allocation may not be sufficient to engender historically contingent selection biases.

Near complete interocular transfer of the attentional repulsion effect

During a brief period following attention capture by an abrupt-onset cue, a briefly presented item in the vicinity appears to be displaced away from the focus of attention. This effect, termed the attentional repulsion effect (ARE), can be induced with various ways of focusing attention (e.g., color pop-out, an auditory cue, voluntary focusing), and can be measured in various ways (e.g., as a vernier offset, shape deformation, action error). While most prior results on ARE have confirmed its close relationship with attention mechanisms, DiGiacomo and Pratt Vision Research 64 (2012) 35–41 reported no interocular transfer of ARE, placing ARE’s operational locus at the level of monocular processing in V1 and/or LGN. DiGiacomo's and Pratt’s result is surprising because even local pattern adaptation effects thought to be mediated by V1 show 50%–80% of interocular transfer. How could it be that a strongly attention-dependent effect is exclusively mediated by monocular processes? It was thus important to replicate DiGiacomo’s and Pratt’s surprising results using a transient-free mirror-based stereoscope and a broader method where ARE was measured with both vertical and horizontal vernier offsets. Our results demonstrate a nearly complete interocular transfer of ARE, with stronger ARE obtained with horizontal than with vertical verniers, implying that ARE may be hemifield dependent. We speculate that the null ARE result reported by DiGiacomo and Pratt in their dichoptic condition may be due to a statistical anomaly or to a potential visual artifact generated by the eye shutters that were used to present dichoptic stimuli.

The impact of temporal contingencies between cue and target onset on spatial attentional capture by subliminal onset cues.

Prior research suggested that attentional capture by subliminal abrupt onset cues is stimulus driven. In these studies, reacting was faster when a searched-for target appeared at the location of a preceding abrupt onset cue compared to when the same target appeared at a location away from the cue (cueing effect), although the earlier onset of the cue was subliminal, because it appeared as one out of three horizontally aligned placeholders with a lead time that was too short to be noticed by the participants. Because the cueing effects seemed to be independent of top-down search settings for target features, the effect was attributed to stimulus-driven attentional capture. However, prior studies did not investigate if participants experienced the cues as useful temporal warning signals and, therefore, attended to the cues in a top-down way. Here, we tested to which extent search settings based on temporal contingencies between cue and target onset could be responsible for spatial cueing effects. Cueing effects were replicated, and we showed that removing temporal contingencies between cue and target onset did not diminish the cueing effects (Experiments 1 and 2). Neither presenting the cues in the majority of trials after target onset (Experiment 1) nor presenting cue and target unrelated to one another (Experiment 2) led to a significant reduction of the spatial cueing effects. Results thus support the hypothesis that the subliminal cues captured attention in a stimulus-driven way.

Correction to: Dissociating the capture of attention from saccade activation by subliminal abrupt onsets.

Attentional capture and effects on saccade metrics by subliminal abrupt onset cues have been studied with peripheral cues at one out of several (two to four) display locations, swiftly followed by additional onsets at the other display locations. The lead time of the cue was too short to be seen. Here, we were interested in whether such subliminal onset cues influenced saccades primarily by way of attention or by way of direct saccade activation. In separate blocks, participants made speeded pro-saccades towards a black target or anti-saccades away from the target. Prior to the targets, an abrupt onset cue was presented either at the same side as the target (valid condition) or at the opposite side (invalid condition). If cues influenced performance by way of attentional capture, we expected facilitation of target processing in valid compared to invalid conditions (cueing effect) in the pro- as well as in the anti-saccade task. If the cues activated saccades in their direction, we expected the cueing effect to drop in the anti-saccade task compared to the pro-saccade task because in the anti-saccade task the invalid cue would activate the finally required response, whereas the valid cue would activate the alternative response, leading to interference. Results were in line with the former of these possibilities suggesting that subliminal abrupt onsets influenced saccades by way of attention with no or little direct activation of saccades.

Immunity to attentional capture at ignored locations.

Certain stimuli have the power to rapidly and involuntarily capture spatial attention against our will. The present study investigated whether such stimuli capture spatial attention even when they appear in ignored regions of visual space. In other words, which force is more powerful: attentional capture or spatial filtering? Participants performed a spatial cuing task, searching for a letter target defined by color (e.g., green) and then reporting that letter's identity. Two of the four search locations were always irrelevant. Unlike many previous experiments, participants were forced to ignore these locations because they always contained a target-colored distractor letter. Experiment 1 assessed capture by a salient-but-irrelevant abrupt onset cue appearing 150 ms before the search display. One might expect onset cues to capture attention even at ignored locations given that the main function of capture, presumably, is to rapidly alert observers to unexpected yet potentially important stimuli. However, they did not. Experiment 2 replicated this result with a different neutral baseline condition. Experiment 3 replicated the absence of capture effects at ignored locations with an even more potent stimulus: a relevant cue possessing the target color. We propose that people are effectively immune to attentional capture by objects in ignored locations - spatial filtering dominates attentional capture.

Dissociating the capture of attention from saccade activation by subliminal abrupt onsets

Attentional capture and effects on saccade metrics by subliminal abrupt onset cues have been studied with peripheral cues at one out of several (two to four) display locations, swiftly followed by additional onsets at the other display locations. The lead time of the cue was too short to be seen. Here, we were interested in whether such subliminal onset cues influenced saccades primarily by way of attention or by way of direct saccade activation. In separate blocks, participants made speeded pro-saccades towards a black target or anti-saccades away from the target. Prior to the targets, an abrupt onset cue was presented either at the same side as the target (valid condition) or at the opposite side (invalid condition). If cues influenced performance by way of attentional capture, we expected facilitation of target processing in valid compared to invalid conditions (cueing effect) in the pro- as well as in the anti-saccade task. If the cues activated saccades in their direction, we expected the cueing effect to drop in the anti-saccade task compared to the pro-saccade task because in the anti-saccade task the invalid cue would activate the finally required response, whereas the valid cue would activate the alternative response, leading to interference. Results were in line with the former of these possibilities suggesting that subliminal abrupt onsets influenced saccades by way of attention with no or little direct activation of saccades.

Appetitive and aversive outcome associations modulate exogenous cueing.

In two experiments, we utilized an exogenous cueing task in which different-colored abrupt-onset cues were associated with an appetitive (gain of 10 cents), aversive (loss of 5 cents), or neutral (no gain or loss) outcome. Reward delivery did not depend on performance, but instead the specific exogenous cues were always followed by their corresponding outcome in a classical-conditioning–like manner. Compared to neutral cues and independent of cue–target delay, the results of Experiment 1 showed that appetitive cues strengthened attentional capture, whereas aversive cues reduced attentional capture. The data revealed that both appetitive and aversive cues initially facilitated responding at the validly cued location. At the long cue–target delays, however, this facilitation effect at the validly cued location remained present for gain-associated cues while it reversed for loss-associated cues. The results of Experiment 2 confirmed these findings by showing that both neutral and aversive cues initially facilitated responding at the cued location and that, at long cue–target delays, aversive cues elicited stronger reorienting away from the cued location as compared to neutral cues. Together these findings indicate that all abrupt-onset cues initially capture attention independent of their outcome association. Yet, if time passes, attention remains lingering at the location of gain-associated cues, whereas attention is released and reoriented away from the location of loss-associated cues. Altogether, we show that associating the color of an abrupt-onset cue with an appetitive or aversive outcome can modulate attentional deployment following exogenous cueing.

Stimulus-driven attentional capture by subliminal onset cues

In two experiments, we tested whether subliminal abrupt onset cues capture attention in a stimulus-driven way. An onset cue was presented 16 ms prior to the stimulus display that consisted of clearly visible color targets. The onset cue was presented either at the same side as the target (the valid cue condition) or on the opposite side of the target (the invalid cue condition). Because the onset cue was presented 16 ms before other placeholders were presented, the cue was subliminal to the participant. To ensure that this subliminal cue captured attention in a stimulus-driven way, the cue's features did not match the top-down attentional control settings of the participants: (1) The color of the cue was always different than the color of the non-singleton targets ensuring that a top-down set for a specific color or for a singleton would not match the cue, and (2) colored targets and distractors had the same objective luminance (measured by the colorimeter) and subjective lightness (measured by flicker photometry), preventing a match between the top-down set for target and cue contrast. Even though a match between the cues and top-down settings was prevented, in both experiments, the cues captured attention, with faster response times in valid than invalid cue conditions (Experiments 1 and 2) and faster response times in valid than the neutral conditions (Experiment 2). The results support the conclusion that subliminal cues capture attention in a stimulus-driven way.

An electrophysiological study of attention capture by salience: Does rarity enable capture?

Several behavioural studies have suggested that rarity is critical for enabling irrelevant, salient objects to capture attention. We tested this hypothesis using the N2pc thought to reflect attentional allocation. A cue display was followed by a target display in which participants identified the letter in a specific colour. Experiment 1 pitted rare, irrelevant abrupt onset cues (appearing on only 20% of trials) against target-relevant colour cues. The relevant colour cue produced large N2pc and cue validity effects even when competing with a rare, salient, simultaneous abrupt onset. Similar results occurred even when abrupt onset frequency was reduced to only 10% of trials (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 examined rare, irrelevant colour singleton cues (20% of trials). Despite being rare and salient, these singleton cues produced no N2pc or cue validity effect indicating little attentional capture. Experiment 4 greatly increased colour cue salience by adding four background boxes, increasing colour contrast and tripling the cue display duration (from 50 to 150 ms). Small cue validity and N2pc effects were obtained, but did not strongly depend on degree of rarity (20% vs. 100%). We argue that rarity by itself is neither necessary nor sufficient to produce attention capture.