Journal article
New objects do not capture attention without a sensory transient
Attention, perception & psychophysics, Vol.72(5), pp.1298-1310
07/2010
DOI: 10.3758/APP.72.5.1298
PMCID: PMC3163077
PMID: 20601711
Abstract
Attention capture occurs when a stimulus event involuntarily recruits attention. The abrupt appearance of a new object is perhaps the most well-studied attention-capturing event, yet there is debate over the root cause of this capture. Does a new object capture attention because it involves the creation of a new object representation or because its appearance creates a characteristic luminance transient? The present study sought to resolve this question by introducing a new object into a search display, either with or without a unique luminance transient. Contrary to the results of a recent study (Davoli, Suszko, & Abrams, 2007), when the new objects transient was masked by a brief interstimulus interval introduced between the placeholder and search arrays, a new object did not capture attention. Moreover, when a new objects transient was masked, participants could not locate a new object efficiently even when that was their explicit goal. Together, these data suggest that luminance transient signals are necessary for attention capture by new objects.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- New objects do not capture attention without a sensory transient
- Creators
- Andrew Hollingworth - Department of Psychology University of Iowa 11 Seashore Hall E 52242-1407 Iowa City IADaniel Simons - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana IllinoisSteven Franconeri - Northwestern University Evanston Illinois
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Attention, perception & psychophysics, Vol.72(5), pp.1298-1310
- Publisher
- Springer-Verlag
- DOI
- 10.3758/APP.72.5.1298
- PMID
- 20601711
- PMCID
- PMC3163077
- ISSN
- 1943-3921
- eISSN
- 1943-393X
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 07/2010
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9984213279502771
Metrics
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