Expectancies modulate attentional capture by salient color singletons

Geyer, Thomas; Müller, Hermann J.; Krummenacher, Joseph

doi:10.1016/j.visres.2008.02.006

Cited by 134 publications

(142 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…These results are consistent with previous findings showing that an infrequently presented salient distractor in visual search continues to interfere with search performance (e.g., Geyer, Müller, & Krummenacher, 2008). Consistent previous empirical work (Asplund et al, 2010;Horstmann, 2002Horstmann, , 2005Horstmann, , 2006Kazmerski & Friedman, 1995;Retell et al, 2015;Schűtzwohl, 1998) and theoretical accounts of surprise and novelty (Meyer et al, 1997;Sokolov, 1963;Sokolov & Vinogradova 1975), this interference dissipated as a function of exposure to the motion cue in all four conditions (see Fig.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Previously seen and expected stimuli elicit surprise in the context of visual search

Retell

Becker

Remington

2016

Atten Percept Psychophys

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In the context of visual search, surprise is the phenomenon by which a previously unseen and unexpected stimulus exogenously attracts spatial attention. Capture by such a stimulus occurs, by definition, independent of task goals and is thought to be dependent on the extent to which the stimulus deviates from expectations. However, the relative contributions of prior-exposure and explicit knowledge of an unexpected event to the surprise response have not yet been systematically investigated. Here observers searched for a specific color while ignoring irrelevant cues of different colors presented prior to the target display. After a brief familiarization period, we presented an irrelevant motion cue to elicit surprise. Across conditions we varied prior exposure to the motion stimulusseen versus unseen -and top-down expectations of occurrence -expected versus unexpected -to assess the extent to which each of these factors contributes to surprise. We found no attenuation of the surprise response when observers were pre-exposed to the motion cue and or had explicit knowledge of its occurrence. Our results show that it is neither sufficient nor necessary that a stimulus be new and unannounced to elicit surprise and suggest that the expectations that determine the surprise response are highly context specific.Keywords Visual search . Surprise . Attentional capture There is more information present in any given visual scene than the human cognitive system is capable of fully processing at any one point in time. A challenge for the human visual system then is to construct a stable and functional percept of the world from only a select subset of the available visual input. Mechanisms of selective attention allow us to prioritize the processing of certain visual input so that our conscious percept is one constructed from information in the environment that is functionally pertinent. How these selection mechanisms are controlled and the information they are sensitive to has important consequences for how we interact with our environment. In everyday life, the visual system is frequently challenged to decide whether to attend to information that is relevant to our immediate goals or to prioritize signals that might be unexpected and signal a threat.Much of the debate in the literature over attentional control has focused on the nature of control of the exogenous attentional system -a system that reflexively shifts the focus of attention to signals of potential importance in the environment. At issue is the degree to which bottom-up factors, namely stimulus saliency, automatically capture attention and to what degree top-down, namely task goals, modulate the effect of salient stimuli (Jonides & Yantis, 1988;Lamy & Kristjánsson, 2013;Leber & Egeth, 2006;Müller, Geyer, Zehetleitner, & Krummenacher, 2009;Posner, 1980;Remington, Johnston, & Yantis, 1992;Shomstein, 2012;Theeuwes, 1991Theeuwes, , 2010Yantis & Jonides, 1984). Previous studies investigating orienting, especially in natural scenes, suggest that salience may i...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Previously seen and expected stimuli elicit surprise in the context of visual search

Retell

Becker

Remington

2016

Atten Percept Psychophys

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“…Recent findings suggest that this is a plausible explanation (Folk & Remington, 2007;Geyer, Müller, & Krummenacher, 2008;Müller, Geyer, Zehetleitner, & Krummenacher, 2009;Neo & Chua, 2006). For example, Folk and Remington (2007) had participants search for a colour target and presented a colour or onset cue prior to each target.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, if participants were adopting a colour singleton set and motion captured attention due to its infrequent presentation (Folk & Remington, 2007;Geyer, Müller, & Krummenacher, 2008;Müller, Geyer, Zehetleitner, & Krummenacher, 2009;Neo & Chua, 2006), then the cueing effect produced by motion cues should be reduced or eliminated in Experiment 2.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Capture by colour: Evidence for dimension-specific singleton capture

Harris

Becker

Remington

2015

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Previous work on attentional capture has shown the attentional system to be quite flexible in the stimulus properties it can be set to respond to. Several different attentional Bmodes^have been identified. Feature search mode allows attention to be set for specific features of a target (e.g., red). Singleton detection mode sets attention to respond to any discrepant item (Bsingleton^) in the display. Relational search sets attention for the relative properties of the target in relation to the distractors (e.g., redder, larger). Recently, a new attentional mode was proposed that sets attention to respond to any singleton within a particular feature dimension (e.g., colour; Folk & Anderson, 2010). We tested this proposal against the predictions of previously established attentional modes. In a spatial cueing paradigm, participants searched for a colour target that was randomly either red or green. The nature of the attentional control setting was probed by presenting an irrelevant singleton cue prior to the target display and assessing whether it attracted attention. In all experiments, the cues were red, green, blue, or a white stimulus rapidly rotated (motion cue). The results of three experiments support the existence of a Bcolour singleton set,^finding that all colour cues captured attention strongly, while motion cues captured attention only weakly or not at all. Notably, we also found that capture by motion cues in search for colour targets was moderated by their frequency; rare motion cues captured attention (weakly), while frequent motion cues did not.

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“…Yet, target-similar onset distractors (e.g., onsets with the same colour as the target) typically attract the gaze more strongly (e.g., on 49 % of all trials) than targetdissimilar onset distractors (e.g., green onsets; 7 %: see Ludwig & Gilchrist, 2002, Experiment 1). These results suggest that capture by irrelevant onsets is modulated by topdown processes (Becker & Lewis, 2015;Geyer, Mueller & Krummenacher, 2008;Ludwig & Gilchrist, 2002;Moher et al, 2011, Sayim et al, 2010Wu & Remington, 2003). Critically, however, Mulckhuyse and colleagues (2008) compared the time-course of saccades to target-similar and dissimilar onsets with a cumulative latency distribution analysis, and found that saccades to the target-similar onset did not start earlier, as one would expect on a feedforward account (where target-similar items should enjoy a selection advantage).…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

Top-down knowledge modulates onset capture in a feedforward manner

2016

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How do we select behaviourally important information from cluttered visual environments? Previous research has shown that both top-down, goal-driven factors and bottom-up, stimulus-driven factors determine which stimuli are selected. However, it is still debated when top-down processes modulate visual selection. According to a feedforward account, top-down processes modulate visual processing even before the appearance of any stimuli, whereas others claim that top-down processes modulate visual selection only at a late stage, via feedback processing. In line with such a dual stage account, some studies found that eye movements to an irrelevant onset distractor are not modulated by its similarity to the target stimulus, especially when eye movements are launched early (within 150-ms post stimulus onset). However, in these studies the target transiently changed colour due to a colour after-effect that occurred during premasking, and the time course analyses were incomplete. The present study tested the feedforward account against the dual stage account in two eye tracking experiments, with and without colour after-effects (Exp. 1), as well when the target colour varied randomly and observers were informed of the target colour with a word cue (Exp. 2). The results showed that top-down processes modulated the earliest eye movements to the onset distractors (<150-ms latencies), without incurring any costs for selection of target matching distractors. These results unambiguously support a feedforward account of topdown modulation.

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Expectancies modulate attentional capture by salient color singletons

Cited by 134 publications

References 17 publications

Previously seen and expected stimuli elicit surprise in the context of visual search

Previously seen and expected stimuli elicit surprise in the context of visual search

Capture by colour: Evidence for dimension-specific singleton capture

Top-down knowledge modulates onset capture in a feedforward manner

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