Feature-based attention: it is all bottom-up priming

Theeuwes, Jan

doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0055

Cited by 137 publications

(128 citation statements)

References 74 publications

(146 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

123

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It can, therefore, be argued that the shift in landing position towards the target in the Instruction condition does not reflect a top-down influence but is the result of an effect known as inter-trial priming (Theeuwes, 2013;Theeuwes, Reimann, & Mortier, 2006). The target is primed by previous trials and this effect is enhanced when more trials with the same target follow each other (Rastgardani et al, 2009;Theeuwes, 2010).…”

Section: Discussion Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…This effect is known as the global effect or saccade averaging and occurs when stimuli are presented relatively close to each other (less than 35°angular distance) (Findlay, 1982;Van der Stigchel, Heeman, & Nijboer, 2012;Van der Stigchel & Nijboer, 2011, 2013Walker et al, 1997). The global effect has originally been explained by a weighted average account.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The time course of top-down control on saccade averaging

Heeman¹,

Theeuwes²,

Stigchel³

2014

Vision Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When objects in a visual scene are positioned in close proximity, eye movements to these objects tend to land at an intermediate location between the objects (i.e., the global effect). This effect is most pronounced for short latency saccades and is therefore believed to be reflexive and dominantly controlled by bottom-up information. At longer latencies this effect can be modulated by top-down factors. The current study established the time course at which top-down information starts to have an influence on bottom-up averaging. In a standard global effect task two peripheral stimuli (a red and a green abrupt onset) were positioned within an angular distance of 20°. In the condition in which observers received no specific target instruction, the eyes landed in between the red and green element establishing the classic global effect. However, when observers were instructed to make a saccade to the red element during a whole block or when the target color varied from trial-to-trial (red or green), a clear effect of the target instruction on the accuracy of the landing position of the primary saccade was found. With increasing saccade latencies, the eyes landed closer to the instructed target. Crucially, however, this effect was even seen for the shortest saccade latencies (as early as 200 ms), suggesting that saccade averaging is affected early on by top-down processes.

show abstract

Section: Discussion Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The time course of top-down control on saccade averaging

Heeman¹,

Theeuwes²,

Stigchel³

2014

Vision Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Theeuwes [70] provides a detailed review on the literature on feature-based attention and argues that there is little evidence for endogenous, top-down control in feature-based attention and thus advocates a view that all feature-based attention could be explained fully by bottom-up priming, in contrast to the predominate role of top-down control in spatial attention, which is at the focus of many other studies in this Theme Issue.…”

Section: This Theme Issue At a Glancementioning

confidence: 99%

Attentional selection in visual perception, memory and action: a quest for cross-domain integration

Schneider

Einhäuser

Horstmann

2013

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

For decades, the cognitive and neural sciences have benefitted greatly from a separation of mind and brain into distinct functional domains. The tremendous success of this approach notwithstanding, it is self-evident that such a view is incomplete. Goal-directed behaviour of an organism requires the joint functioning of perception, memory and sensorimotor control. A prime candidate for achieving integration across these functional domains are attentional processes. Consequently, this Theme Issue brings together studies of attentional selection from many fields, both experimental and theoretical, that are united in their quest to find overreaching integrative principles of attention between perception, memory and action. In all domains, attention is understood as combination of competition and priority control (‘bias’), with the task as a decisive driving factor to ensure coherent goal-directed behaviour and cognition. Using vision as the predominant model system for attentional selection, many studies of this Theme Issue focus special emphasis on eye movements as a selection process that is both a fundamental action and serves a key function in perception. The Theme Issue spans a wide range of methods, from measuring human behaviour in the real word to recordings of single neurons in the non-human primate brain. We firmly believe that combining such a breadth in approaches is necessary not only for attentional selection, but also to take the next decisive step in all of the cognitive and neural sciences: to understand cognition and behaviour beyond isolated domains.

show abstract

“…Most theories of visual attention assume that bottomup and top-down factors interact in visual selection (Wolfe, 1994). Still, a hotly debated question is whether top-down processing can modulate visual processing during feedforward processing or whether it affects selection only at a later stage, via feedback connections (Ansorge, Horstmann & Scharlau, 2010;Theeuwes, 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Top-down knowledge modulates onset capture in a feedforward manner

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

Feature-based attention: it is all bottom-up priming

Cited by 137 publications

References 74 publications

The time course of top-down control on saccade averaging

The time course of top-down control on saccade averaging

Attentional selection in visual perception, memory and action: a quest for cross-domain integration

Top-down knowledge modulates onset capture in a feedforward manner

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About