Journal article
Feature-Based Statistical Regularities of Distractors Modulate Attentional Capture
Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, Vol.45(3), pp.419-433
03/2019
DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000613
PMID: 30802131
Abstract
Ignoring salient distracting information is paramount to efficiently guiding attention during visual search. Learning to reject or suppress these strong sources of distraction leads to more effective visual search for targets. Participants can learn to overcome salient distractors if given reliable search regularities. If salient distractors appear in 1 location more frequently than any other, the visual system can use this environmental regularity to reduce attentional capture at the more frequent location (Wang & Theeuwes, 2018). We asked if reduced attentional capture is limited to location-based regularities, or, if the visual attentional system is configured to use feature-based regularities in reducing attentional capture as well. In 4 experiments examining attentional capture by task-irrelevant color singletons, participants searched for a shape singleton target among homogenously colored distractors. Critically, on a proportion of trials, a salient, color singleton distractor was presented. Color singleton distractors that appeared at a frequent location captured attention less than color singleton distractors that appeared at infrequent locations, replicating previous findings. In subsequent experiments we manipulated the frequency of the colors of the color singleton distractors and observed robust increases in capture based on color feature regularities. Despite strong location information, we observed reliable attentional capture attenuation by frequently presented distractor colors. Our results suggest that attentional capture is attenuated by both location and feature information.
Public Significance Statement
Theories of attention discuss both guidance to target stimuli and away from distracting stimuli based information extracted from the environment. For example, in searching for a friend in a crowded city street, one might search for a specific color shirt they were wearing, and in doing so, one might avoid searching for other colors. The same search strategy could be applied to locations: One might search for plausible locations (e.g., walking among others) and avoid implausible locations (e.g., on the sides of buildings). Recently, location-based information has been shown to reduce distraction by stimuli in frequently presented locations. Attentional guidance based on feature-based information is also important. Our work demonstrates that both location- and feature-based sources of information can be used to efficiently reduce the distraction elicited by salient distractors. Our results suggest that the visual attentional system is adept at extracting and using feature- and location-based statistical regularities to reduce distraction associated with those sources of information.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Feature-Based Statistical Regularities of Distractors Modulate Attentional Capture
- Creators
- Brad T Stilwell - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of IowaBrett Bahle - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of IowaShaun P Vecera - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa
- Contributors
- Isabel Gauthier (Editor)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, Vol.45(3), pp.419-433
- Publisher
- American Psychological Association
- DOI
- 10.1037/xhp0000613
- PMID
- 30802131
- ISSN
- 0096-1523
- eISSN
- 1939-1277
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 03/2019
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984066136202771
Metrics
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