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Experience-dependent attentional tuning of distractor rejection
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Experience-dependent attentional tuning of distractor rejection

Daniel B Vatterott and Shaun P Vecera
Psychonomic bulletin & review, Vol.19(5), pp.871-878
10/2012
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-012-0280-4
PMID: 22696250
url
https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-012-0280-4View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Irrelevant salient distractors often capture attention, but given a sufficiently specific search template, these salient items no longer capture attention. In the present experiments, we investigated whether specific target templates are sufficient to resist capture, or whether experience with the salient distractors is also necessary. To test this hypothesis, observers completed four blocks of trials, each with a different-colored irrelevant singleton present on half of the trials. Color singletons captured attention early within a block, but after sufficient experience with the irrelevant singletons, those singletons no longer captured attention in the second halves of the blocks. This result suggests that to resist capture, a specific target template must be accompanied by experience-dependent attentional tuning to distractor properties.
Cues Learning Humans Attention Reaction Time Pattern Recognition, Visual Color Perception

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