Reward has a residual impact on target selection in visual search, but not on the suppression of distractors
Abstract
In the reinforcement learning literature, good outcome following selection of a visual object is thought to bias perception and attention in favour of similar objects in later experience. This impact of reward might be instantiated in two ways: Reward could prime target features or it could act to facilitate suppression of distractors present when reward was received. Here we report results from an experiment in which reward outcome was selectively associated either with the colour defining a visual search target or with the colour defining a salient distractor in the display. Reward's impact on search was evident only when it was tied to the target; reward made it no easier to ignore a distractor when it subsequently reappeared as a distractor. This suggests that reward acts largely to prime target representations, consistent with the idea that objects associated with good outcome become visually salient.
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Reward intertrial priming affects predominantly target representations.
“reward intertrial priming affects predominantly target representations (e.g., Hickey, Chelazzi, & Theeuwes, 2011; Kristjánsson et al., 2010).”
From Selection history: How reward modulates selectivity of visual attention. (2018) · cites this paper as Hickey, Chelazzi, & Theeuwes, 2011
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- Authors
- Hickey, C., Chelazzi, L., & Theeuwes, J.
- Affiliations
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
- University of Verona (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Hickey, Clayton
- Venue
- Visual Cognition
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2011-01
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 117-128
- ISSN
- 1350-6285 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-0716
- OpenAlex
- W2110335215
- Cited by
- 89
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 7.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Visual Cognition (publishedVersion)
- Digital Academic REpository of VU University Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) (submittedVersion)
- Institutional Research Information System (Università degli Studi di Trento) (submittedVersion)
- University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (submittedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Visual Attention and Saliency Detection
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- reward, visual search, distractor suppression, target selection, reinforcement learning, visual saliency, attention
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