Modulation Of Attentional Capture Research Articles

Effect of task set-modulating attentional capture depends on the distractor cost in visual search: evidence from N2pc.

Previous studies have confirmed that attention can be modulated by the current task set while involuntarily captured by salient items. However, little is known on which factors the modulation of attentional capture is dependent on when the same stimuli with different task sets are presented. In the present study, participants conducted two visual search tasks with the same search arrays by varying target and distractor settings (color singleton as target, onset singleton as distractor, named as color task, and vice versa). Ipsilateral and contralateral color distractors resulted in two different relative saliences in two tasks, respectively. Both reaction times (RTs) and N2-posterior-contralateral (N2pc) results showed that there was no difference between ipsilateral and contralateral color distractors in the onset task. However, both RTs and the latency of N2pc showed a delay to the ipsilateral onset distractor compared with the contralateral onset distractor. Moreover, the N2pc observed under the contralateral distractor condition in the color task was reversed, and its amplitude was attenuated. On the basis of these results, we proposed a parameter called distractor cost (DC), computed by subtracting RTs under the contralateral distractor condition from the ipsilateral condition. The results suggest that an enhanced DC might be related to the modification of N2pc in searching for the color target. Taken together, these findings provide evidence that the effect of task set-modulating attentional capture in visual search is related to the DC.

Establishment of an attentional set via statistical learning.

The ability to overcome attentional capture and attend goal-relevant information is typically viewed as a volitional, effortful process that relies on the maintenance of current task priorities or "attentional sets" in working memory. However, the visual system possesses statistical learning mechanisms that can incidentally encode probabilistic associations between goal-relevant objects and the attributes likely to define them. Thus, it is possible that statistical learning may contribute to the establishment of a given attentional set and modulate the effects of attentional capture. Here we provide evidence for such a mechanism, showing that implicitly learned associations between a search target and its likely color directly influence the ability of a salient color precue to capture attention in a classic attentional capture task. This indicates a novel role for statistical learning in the modulation of attentional capture, and emphasizes the role that this learning may play in goal-directed attentional control more generally.

Exploring the modulation of attentional capture by spatial attentional control settings: converging evidence from event-related potentials

Automatic attentional capture by a salient distractor can be prevented by spatial attentional control settings (ACSs) (e.g., Yantis and Jonides in J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 16:121-134, 1990). Earlier, converging evidence for a spatial ACS (Eason et al. 1969) was found in event-related potentials (ERPs). In these studies, the ACS was defined by a single target-relevant location. In an extension, Ishigami et al. (Vis Cogn 17:431-456, 2009) demonstrated a successful ACS in performance that was based on multiple (two) target-relevant locations. The purpose of the current study is to seek converging evidence from ERPs for a spatial ACS defined by multiple (two) target-relevant locations, using the methods in Ishigami et al. (Vis Cogn 17:431-456, 2009). Any one of four figure-8s brightened uninformatively (cue) before presentation of a digit target calling for a speeded identification (2 or 5). A spatial ACS was encouraged because in different blocks, the digit targets appeared only on the horizontal or vertical axis. Performance was more impaired following the invalid-attended cues than following invalid-unattended cues, consistent with Ishigami et al. (Vis Cogn 17:431-456, 2009) and verifying a successful spatial ACS. The direction of attention significantly affected the visual evoked potentials (VEPs) elicited by otherwise identical cues: the amplitudes of early VEPs were greater when the location the cue was presented in was target-relevant than when the location was target-irrelevant. These results re-affirm that attentional capture by irrelevant salient stimuli can be modulated by spatial ACSs defined by multiple target locations in performance and provide converging evidence from ERPs for the previously established behavioral findings.

Modulation of attentional capture for distractor object in serial presentation paradigm

Modulation of attentional capture for distractor object in serial presentation paradigm

The modulation of attentional capture by behavioral relevance

The modulation of attentional capture by behavioral relevance

Exploring the modulation of attentional capture by attentional control settings using performance and illusory line motion

Modulation of attentional capture by attentional control settings was explored using performance and phenomenology. Trials began with four figure-8s presented above, below, left, and right of fixation. Any figure-8 (or none) brightened uninformatively (cue) before presentation of either a digit target (2 or 5 made from a figure-8 by deletion) calling for a speeded identification, or a line connecting adjacent figure-8s calling for a motion judgement. Such lines are seen drawn away from an adjacent cue. Digit targets appeared only on the horizontal or vertical axes, encouraging voluntary attention to two (target-relevant) of the four figure-8s. Whereas voluntary attention reduced attentional capture from cues at taskirrelevant locations (when lines were unlikely to be presented near the task-irrelevant locations), it had no effect on motion judgements, suggesting that cue-elicited exogenous attention affects perceptual arrival times while voluntary attention prioritizes locations for further processing without affecting arrival times.

Perceptual load modulates attentional capture by abrupt onsets

The abrupt appearance of a new object captures attention, even when the object is task irrelevant. These findings suggest that abrupt onsets capture attention in a stimulus-driven manner and are not susceptible to top-down influences on attentional control. However, previous studies examining the ability of abrupt onsets to capture attention have used search displays that lacked significant complexity. Because attention is a limited capacity mechanism, it is possible that increasing the complexity, or perceptual load, of the search arrays may modulate capture by abrupt onsets. We used a flanker task to examine the effect of perceptual load on attentional capture by abruptly appearing objects. Subjects searched for a target letter through low-load (set size = 1) and high-load (set size = 6) displays. On each trial, irrelevant flankers also appeared, one as an onset and the other as an offset. Onset flankers affected search in low-load but not high-load displays. This modulation of attentional capture was not caused by generalized slowing when subjects searched through high-load displays; search for a single perceptually degraded target slowed response times but did not affect attentional capture. These findings demonstrate that attentional capture by an abrupt onset is attenuated when people search through high-load scenes.

Modulation of Attentional Capture by Display Probabilities in Visual Search

Attentional capture is often thought to be automatic and not modulable. For example, visual search experiments showed that salient distractor singletons strongly capture attention even when they had to be ignored by the observers. Recently, however, it was shown that attentional capture can be modulated by varying the display probability of distractors. Thus, attentional capture is not completely automatic. Distractor singletons in these studies were defined by salient colour differences and, hence, the parvocellular system may have been primarily involved. Here, we aimed at involving the magnocellular system by presenting onset distractors--ie, distractors displayed after the onset of the other search items--which are known to strongly capture attention. Eye movements were recorded. The results clearly show that attentional capture by the onset distractors strongly depended on their display probability: The higher the display probability, the lower the proportion of saccades to the onset distractors. This result provides further evidence that attentional capture is not completely automatic