Slippage theory and the flanker paradigm: An early-selection account of selective attention failures.

Gaspelin, Nicholas; Ruthruff, Eric; Jung, Kyunghun

doi:10.1037/a0036179

Cited by 22 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…We therefore propose that capture by salient and relevant stimuli is prevented at excluded spatial locations and that previous findings to the contrary reflect weak (incomplete) spatial filtering due to insufficient incentives. This pattern – that processing of ignored items approaches zero as the incentives and opportunities for spatial filtering increase – is a recurring theme in the attention literature (for example, see Ruthruff & Miller, 1995; Lachter et al, 2004; Gaspelin, Ruthruff, & Jung, 2014). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Immunity to attentional capture at ignored locations

Ruthruff

Gaspelin

2017

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Certain stimuli have the power to rapidly and involuntarily capture spatial attention against our will. The present study investigated whether such stimuli capture spatial attention even when they appear in ignored regions of visual space. In other words, which force is more powerful: attentional capture or spatial filtering? Participants performed a spatial cuing task, searching for a letter target defined by color (e.g., green) and then reporting that letter’s identity. Two of the four search locations were always irrelevant. Unlike many previous experiments, participants were forced to ignore these locations because they always contained a target-colored distractor letter. Experiment 1 assessed capture by a salient-but-irrelevant abrupt onset cue appearing 150 ms before the search display. One might expect onset cues to capture attention even at ignored locations given that the main function of capture, presumably, is to rapidly alert observers to unexpected yet potentially important stimuli. However, they did not. Experiment 2 replicated this result with a different neutral baseline condition. Experiment 3 replicated the absence of capture effects at ignored locations with an even more potent stimulus: a relevant cue possessing the target color. We propose that people are effectively immune to attentional capture by objects in ignored locations – spatial filtering dominates attentional capture.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Immunity to attentional capture at ignored locations

Ruthruff

Gaspelin

2017

Atten Percept Psychophys

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“…However, certain findings challenge the load theory claim. Some results have failed to show significant distractor interference under low perceptual load (Johnson, McGrath, & McNeil, 2002;Paquet & Craig, 1997), other evidence has demonstrated significant interference under high perceptual load (Biggs, Kreager, Gibson, Villano, & Crowell, 2012;Eltiti, Wallace, & Fox, 2005) and some researchers have argued against the empirical evidence obtained by typical load manipulations (e.g., Gaspelin, Ruthruff, & Jung, 2014;Wilson, Muroi, & MacLeod, 2011). As research moves forward with perceptual load theory, a novel approach to resolving such discrepancies has been to integrate the selective attention findings of perceptual load with factors relevant to visual search (Roper, Cosman, & Vecera, 2013).…”

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confidence: 94%

Finding a link between guided search and perceptual load theory

Biggs

Kreager

Davoli

2015

Journal of Cognitive Psychology

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Perceptual load theory claims that attentional processing of distractors in the visual environment is dependent upon the availability of perceptual resources, and recent research has attempted to link this selective attention theory to more classic ideas on visual search. In the present study, we investigated how perceptual load could be linked to a prominent visual search theory: guided search. Our findings suggest that any volitional attempt at attentional guidance only hindered attention under low perceptual load, whereas attentional guidance could be highly effective under high perceptual load. Importantly, guided search only proved effective when participants could utilise knowledge about the display consistently from trial-to-trial. This finding parallels previous evidence about visual search, extends it to perceptual load theory and further demonstrates the rich potential in uniting visual search and visual selection studies.

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“…Dilution occurred only when the distractor was a luminance onset or a motion onset while the other stimuli were offsets. Gaspelin, Ruthruff, and Jung (2014) cued either the target or the distractor location in displays with varying numbers of nontargets. According to PLT, cuing the target location should make nontargets irrelevant and reduce PL, and thus PLT predicts that the distractor will be attended more and will therefore interfere with the response more.…”

Section: Dilutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying visual targets amongst interfering distractors: Sorting out the roles of perceptual load, dilution, and attentional zoom

Cave

Chen

2016

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Visual selection is imperfect; whenever a complex array of objects is processed, representations of multiple objects are likely to be active simultaneously. A full account of attentional processing must explain how these representations affect one another and how they interact to produce a response. Evidence on these interactions comes from measures of distractor interference and from dilution of distractor effects by other nontargets. Based on these data, different principles have been proposed to help understand target-distractor interactions, including accounts based on perceptual load and on dilution among nontargets. We review evidence from a number of experiments, including some using Yantis and Jonides's (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 10, 601-621, 1984, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 16, 121-134, 1990) methods for preventing abrupt onsets, which can disrupt spatial attention. The results underscore spatial constraints on the allocation of attention to include targets and exclude distractors. Selection is most effective when a single region can be selected that includes all possible target locations and excludes possible distractor locations. This region can be expanded or contracted as needed for the task, as suggested by C. W. Eriksen and St. James's (Perception & Psychophysics, 40, 225-240, 1986) zoom lens model. This attentional zoom setting is probably affected by a number of factors, including the number of nontargets, the similarity among stimulus elements, the discriminability of the possible targets, and the discrimination difficulty of a concurrent task. A narrower attentional zoom setting that excludes a distractor will prevent interference from that distractor. Interference from a distractor will be diluted by nontargets, but only if they are within the attentional zoom region.

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Slippage theory and the flanker paradigm: An early-selection account of selective attention failures.

Cited by 22 publications

References 72 publications

Immunity to attentional capture at ignored locations

Immunity to attentional capture at ignored locations

Finding a link between guided search and perceptual load theory

Identifying visual targets amongst interfering distractors: Sorting out the roles of perceptual load, dilution, and attentional zoom

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