The DOI matches its Crossref record; 55 of the 55 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
When goals conflict with values: Counterproductive attentional and oculomotor capture by reward-related stimuli.
Open accessAbstract
Attention provides the gateway to cognition, by selecting certain stimuli for further analysis. Recent research demonstrates that whether a stimulus captures attention is not determined solely by its physical properties, but is malleable, being influenced by our previous experience of rewards obtained by attending to that stimulus. Here we show that this influence of reward learning on attention extends to task-irrelevant stimuli. In a visual search task, certain stimuli signaled the magnitude of available reward, but reward delivery was not contingent on responding to those stimuli. Indeed, any attentional capture by these critical distractor stimuli led to a reduction in the reward obtained. Nevertheless, distractors signaling large reward produced greater attentional and oculomotor capture than those signaling small reward. This counterproductive capture by task-irrelevant stimuli is important because it demonstrates how external reward structures can produce patterns of behavior that conflict with task demands, and similar processes may underlie problematic behavior directed toward real-world rewards.
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“These studies instead demonstrated that a reward-signaling stimulus demanded attention irrespective of it being detrimental to task performance and reward payout (e.g., Le Pelley et al., 2015; Failing et al., 2015; Failing & Theeuwes, 2017).”
From Selection history: How reward modulates selectivity of visual attention. (2018) · cites this paper as Le Pelley et al., 2015
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“However, other studies observed no such learning under conditions in which attentional suppression would have been the appropriate response that also would have led to more reward payout.”
From Selection history: How reward modulates selectivity of visual attention. (2018) · cites this paper as Le Pelley et al., 2015
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“A distinction between both has been demonstrated in behavioral studies (Della Libera & Chelazzi, 2009; Le Pelley et al., 2015; see also Chelazzi et al., 2013)”
From Selection history: How reward modulates selectivity of visual attention. (2018) · cites this paper as Le Pelley et al., 2015
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Metadata
- Authors
- Le Pelley, M. E., Pearson, D., Griffiths, O., & Beesley, T.
- Affiliations
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
- Published
- 2015-02
- Volume
- 144
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 158-171
- ISSN
- 0096-3445 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-2222
- OpenAlex
- W2125474002
- Cited by
- 327
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 33 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 13
- FWCI
- 12.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Psychology General (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UNSWorks (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- UNSWorks (UNSW Sydney) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Lancaster EPrints (Lancaster University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Australian Research Council (FT100100260)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Visual Attention and Saliency Detection
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Keywords
- attentional capture, oculomotor capture, reward learning, task-irrelevant distractors, visual search, reward magnitude, counterproductive behavior, extrinsic rewards
- MeSH terms
- Problem Behavior, Adolescent, Association Learning, Attention, Color Perception, Conflict, Psychological, Cues, Female, Goals, Humans, Male, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Reaction Time, Reward, Saccades, Social Values, Students, Young Adult
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