Exogenous visual orienting by reward

Abstract

Classic spatial cueing experiments have demonstrated that salient cues have the ability to summon attention as evidenced by performance benefits when the cue validly indicates the target location and costs when the cue is invalid. Here we show that nonsalient cues that are associated with reward also have the ability to capture attention. We demonstrate performance costs and benefits in attentional orienting towards a nonsalient cue that acquired value through reward learning. The present study provides direct evidence that stimuli associated with reward have the ability to exogenously capture spatial attention independent of task-set, goals and salience.

The time course of attentional bias to cues of threat and safety

“…Specifically, objects selected in the past and associated with positive outcomes (such as monetary reward) attract attention despite being irrelevant to current task goals and despite lacking physical salience (e.g. Anderson, Laurent, & Yantis, 2011Failing & Theeuwes, 2014;Failing, Nissens, Pearson, Le Pelley, & Theeuwes, 2015;Mohanty, Gitelman, Small, & Mesulam, 2008;. It is reasonable to suggest that the signals of threat and safety might also fall into this new category of attentional control referred to as "selection history".…”

Task-irrelevant stimulus-reward association induces value-driven attentional capture

“…The finding that monetary rewards increase attentional efforts and result in higher accuracy than symbolic reward (Hübner & Schlösser, 2010) is consistent with our intuitive sense of attentional priority acquisition, in that important information explicitly draws attention. Other studies showing that the effect of reward learning observed when reward is not associated with a target-defining feature (Failing & Theeuwes, 2014) and that the association between reward and stimulus features are learned implicitly (Anderson, 2014(Anderson, , 2015) suggest that attentional priority may be acquired implicitly without a direct link to a common everyday task. The current study goes one step further, showing that VDAC occurs even when reward is associated with task-irrelevant stimulus features.…”

“…In contrast, most studies on reward association learning provide participants with monetary compensation that is proportional to reward points earned in the experiment (e.g., Anderson et al, 2011a, b;Chelazzi et al, 2014;Failing & Theeuwes, 2014;Hickey et al, 2010a, b;Krebs et al, 2010). Variable reward was used to maintain task motivation.…”

“…However, a target was always presented in the colored circle associated with reward, and this stimulus feature predicted target location (Failing & Theeuwes, 2014). During training, two letters were presented to the right and left of fixation, and participants judged which target (S or P) was presented.…”

Value-modulated oculomotor capture by task-irrelevant stimuli is a consequence of early competition on the saccade map

“…However, recent work-much of it from the lab of Steven Yantis-has reinvigorated this idea by demonstrating conclusively that learning about the relationships between stimuli and rewards influences the likelihood that those stimuli will automatically capture attention (e.g., Anderson, Laurent, & Yantis, 2011a, 2011bAnderson & Yantis, 2012;Della Libera & Chelazzi, 2009;Failing & Theeuwes, 2014;Hickey, Chelazzi, & Theeuwes, 2010Le Pelley et al, 2015;Pearson, Donkin, Tran, Most, & Le Pelley, 2015;Rutherford, O'Brien, & Raymond, 2010;; for a systematic review, see Le Pelley et al, 2016). Specifically, these studies demonstrate that stimuli associated with high-value rewards are more likely to capture attention than equally salient stimuli that are associated with low rewards (or no reward).…”