Stimulus-driven capture and attentional set: Selective search for color and visual abrupt onsets.

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that attentional capture is contingent on the attentional control setting induced by the task demands (C. L. Folk, R. Remington, & J. C. Johnston, 1992). Because the experiments on which these conclusions are based can be criticized for several reasons, the contingent capture hypothesis was tested using 2 visual search tasks in which subjects searched multielement displays in which a color singleton and onset singleton were simultaneously present. Both experiments show that the contingent capture hypothesis does not hold: Irrespective of attentional set, attention was captured by the most salient singleton. The findings suggest a stimulus-driven model of performance in which selection is basically determined by the properties of the featural singletons present in the visual field.

Cites (31)

1. A feature-integration theory of attention.
   Treisman, Anne M., Gelade, Garry · 1980 · Cognitive Psychology
2. Orienting of Attention
   Posner, Michael I. · 1980 · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
3. Perception and Communication
   2016 · Interpersonal Communication
4. Involuntary covert orienting is contingent on attentional control settings
   Folk, Charles L., Remington, Roger W., Johnston, James C. · 1992 · Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance
5. Feature analysis in early vision: Evidence from search asymmetries.
   Anne Treisman, Stephen Gormican · 1988 · Psychological Review
6. A theory of visual attention.
   Claus Bundesen · 1990 · Psychological Review
7. Perceptual selectivity for color and form
   Theeuwes, Jan · 1992 · Perception & Psychophysics
8. Abrupt visual onsets and selective attention: Evidence from visual search.
   Steven Yantis, John J. Jonides · 1984 · Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance
9. Reflexive and voluntary orienting of visual attention: Time course of activation and resistance to interruption.
   Hermann Joseph Muller, Patrick Rabbitt · 1989 · Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance
10. Voluntary versus automatic control over the mind's eye's movement
    John Jonides · 1981 · Attention and performance

Show all 31 references

Cited by (25)

1. On the utility of P3 amplitude as a measure of processing capacity
   Kok, Albert · 2001 · Psychophysiology
2. Top–down and bottom–up control of visual selection
   Theeuwes, Jan · 2010 · Acta Psychologica
3. Guided Search 6.0: an updated model of visual search
   Wolfe, Jeremy M. · 2021 · Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
4. Our Eyes do Not Always Go Where we Want Them to Go: Capture of the Eyes by New Objects
   Theeuwes, Jan, Kramer, Arthur F., Hahn, Sowon, Irwin, David E. · 1998 · Psychological Science
5. What You See Is What You Set: Sustained Inattentional Blindness and the Capture of Awareness.
   Most, Steven B., Scholl, Brian J., Clifford, Erin R., Simons, Daniel J. · 2005 · Psychological Review

See all 684