In order to efficiently process incoming visual information, selective attention acts as a filter that enhances relevant and suppresses irrelevant information. In this study, we used an event-related potential (ERP) approach with systematic lateralization to investigate enhancement and suppression during encoding of information into visual working memory (WM) separately. We used a change detection task in which observers had to memorize some items while ignoring other items. We found that the to-be-ignored items elicited a PD component in the ERP, suggesting that irrelevant information is actively suppressed from WM. The PD amplitude increased with distractor load and decreased with the ability to group distractors according to Gestalt principles. This suggests that the PD can be used as an indicator of how efficiently items can be suppressed from entering WM. Furthermore, while lateral memory-targets elicited a "traditional" CDA (starting ~300 ms), lateral memory-distractors elicited a sustained positivity contralateral to memory-distractors (CDAp, starting ~400 ms). In sum the results suggest that inhibition of irrelevant information is an important factor for efficient WM and is reflected in spontaneous (PD) and sustained suppression (CDAp).

Threat stimuli are considered to be processed with higher priority due to an automatic threat detection system that enables rapid shifts of attention. However, direct evidence is still missing. The present study used the face-in-the-crowd task and event-related potentials to find evidence for the functionality of attention shifts in threat detection. The threat detection advantage was replicated in the behavioral results. An N2pc was observed that was more pronounced and earlier for angry compared to happy faces, suggesting differential attention allocation underlying the threat detection advantage. A larger sustained posterior contralateral negativity indicated that angry faces also gained more enhanced subsequent processing. An early posterior negativity observed 160 ms after stimulus onset revealed early emotion-specific processing that may have caused differences in attention allocation toward threatening stimuli.

Besides visual salience and observers' current intention, prior learning experience may influence deployment of visual attention. Associative learning models postulate that observers pay more attention to stimuli previously experienced as reliable predictors of specific outcomes. To investigate the impact of learning experience on deployment of attention, we combined an associative learning task with a visual search task and measured event-related potentials of the EEG as neural markers of attention deployment. In the learning task, participants categorized stimuli varying in color/shape with only one dimension being predictive of category membership. In the search task, participants searched a shape target while disregarding irrelevant color distractors. Behavioral results showed that color distractors impaired performance to a greater degree when color rather than shape was predictive in the learning task. Neurophysiological results show that the amplified distraction was due to differential attention deployment (N2pc). Experiment 2 showed that when color was predictive for learning, color distractors captured more attention in the search task (ND component) and more suppression of color distractor was required (PD component). The present results thus demonstrate that priority in visual attention is biased toward predictive stimuli, which allows learning experience to shape selection. We also show that learning experience can overrule strong top-down control (blocked tasks, Experiment 3) and that learning experience has a longer-term effect on attention deployment (tasks on two successive days, Experiment 4).

We are constantly extracting regularities from the visual environment to optimize attentional orienting. Here we examine the phenomenon that recurrent presentation of distractors in a specific location leads to its attentional suppression. Specifically, we address the question whether suppression is specific to the spatial regularities of distractors or also extends to visual features bearing statistical regularities. To that end, we used a visual search task with two high probability locations, each showing one of two distractor types more often than the other. At these high probability locations, target processing was impaired and attentional capture by either distractor was reduced, consistent with feature-unspecific spatial suppression. However, suppression was more facilitated when the distractor feature was presented at the high probability location that matched its features, suggesting feature-specific suppression. Interestingly, feature-unspecific spatial suppression only spread between locations when distractors varied within a feature dimension (e.g. red and green) but not when they varied across feature dimensions (e.g., red and square). Our findings thus demonstrate a joint influence of implicitly learned spatial and feature regularities on attention and reveal how the visual system can benefit from complex statistical regularities.