Dollars do not determine detection: Monetary value associated with unexpected objects does not affect the likelihood of inattentional blindness

Abstract

Conscious perception often fails when an object appears unexpectedly and our attention is focused elsewhere (inattentional blindness). Although various factors have been identified that modulate the likelihood of this failure of awareness, it is not clear whether the monetary reward value associated with an object can affect whether or not this object is detected under conditions of inattention. We hypothesised that unexpectedly appearing objects that contain a feature linked to high value, as established via reward learning in a previous task, would subsequently be detected more frequently than objects containing a feature linked to low value. A total of 537 participants first learned the association between a perceptual feature (colour) and subsequent reward values (high, low, or none reward). Afterwards, participants were randomly assigned to a static (Experiment 1) or dynamic (Experiment 2) inattentional blindness task including an unexpected object associated with high, low, or none reward. However, no significant effect of the previously learned value on the subsequent likelihood of detection was observed. We speculate that artificial monetary value, which is known to affect attentional capture, is not strong enough to determine whether or not an object is consciously perceived.

Does hunger promote the detection of foods? The effect of value on inattentional blindness

“…Assuming that value was established via induction of hunger (see above), we did not find an effect of value of the unexpected object on the probability of its detection. This is consistent with Redlich et al, ( 2019 ) who found no significant effect of short-term learned monetary value on inattentional blindness. Nevertheless, our findings seem surprising as (A) previous research has shown a clear effect of hunger on attentional bias towards food stimuli (Morris & Dolan, 2001 ; Piech et al, 2010 ), (B) other studies have repeatedly shown that previously rewarded stimuli are preferentially processed and, thus, suggested that rewards are important in salience determination (Anderson, Laurent, & Yantis, 2011 ; Anderson & Yantis, 2012 ), and (C) noticing in an inattentional blindness paradigm has repeatedly been shown to be sensitive to other forms of value (attentional set: Most & Astur, 2005 ; Most et al, 2001 ; Koivisto & Revonuso, 2007 ; self-related stimuli: Mack & Rock, 1998 , or evolutionary predetermined value: New & German, 2015 ).…”

“…The manipulation chosen in the present study might be potent enough to have an impact on a sensitive measure as reaction times (Piech et al, 2010;Tapper et al, 2010), but not on the binary measure of awareness. Similar, such measure differences have also been found for priming effects and monetary value (Redlich et al, 2019).…”

“…Some characteristics, as the length of time during which a value association was learned, might apply to a large extent of the population, whereas others might only apply for a few. Therefore, we argue, that most value-driven attentional amplification might be sufficient to show in sensitive measures as reaction times (e.g., Mogg, et al, 1998;Redlich et al, 2019), but might not always suffice to help an object cross the threshold of awareness under conditions of inattention.…”

“…Previous studies have shown that evolutionarily predetermined value as animacy (Calvillo & Jackson, 2014) or threat (New & German, 2015) and overlearned value as the word "STOP" or one´s name (Mack & Rock, 1998) indeed affect the susceptibility to inattentional blindness. In contrast, monetary value learned incidentally over a short period of time does not seem to affect whether this failure of awareness occurs (Redlich, Schnuerch, Memmert, & Kreitz, 2019). Li et al (2015) investigated the effect of value related to ice cream on the susceptibility to inattentional blindness by comparing students with high or low levels of ice cream craving.…”

The Dynamic and Fragile Nature of Eyewitness Memory Formation: Considering Stress and Attention

“…Similarly, when participants were given a task in which certain colors were associated with actual monetary rewards, the reward did not impact inattentional blindness (Redlich et al, 2019). In contrast, although military-trained CCTV operators missed seeing a woman setting down a suspicious package and then leaving in CCTV footage, researchers found that trained and novice operators were more likely to notice the woman setting down a package than they were to notice a woman in a pirate costume staying in frame for an equivalent period of time (Näsholm et al, 2014).…”