The DOI matches its Crossref record; 48 of the 48 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Attention Is Spontaneously Biased Toward Regularities
Open accessAbstract
Knowledge about regularities in the environment can be used to facilitate perception, memory, and language acquisition. Given this usefulness, we hypothesized that statistically structured sources of information receive attentional priority over noisier sources, independent of their intrinsic salience or goal relevance. We report three experiments that support this hypothesis. Experiment 1 shows that regularities bias spatial attention: Visual search was facilitated at a location containing temporal regularities, even though these regularities did not predict target location, timing, or identity. Experiments 2 and 3 show that regularities bias feature attention: Attentional capture doubled in magnitude when singletons appeared, respectively, in a color or dimension with temporal regularities among task-irrelevant stimuli. Prioritization of the locations and features of regularities is not easily accounted for in the conventional dichotomy between stimulus-driven and goal-directed attention. This prioritization may in turn promote further statistical learning, helping the mind to acquire knowledge about stable aspects of the environment.
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“This effect was observed although the vast majority of the participants were unaware of the temporal regularities.”
From Selection history: How reward modulates selectivity of visual attention. (2018) · cites this paper as Zhao, Al-Aidroos, & Turk-Browne, 2013
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“Participants were found to respond quicker when the target happened to be at the stream location that contained temporal regularities relative to when it appeared at the location of a random stream.”
From Selection history: How reward modulates selectivity of visual attention. (2018) · cites this paper as Zhao, Al-Aidroos, & Turk-Browne, 2013
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Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
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Cited by
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Expectation in perceptual decision making: neural and computational mechanisms
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“More research is needed to test and potentially revise the notion of auditory precision-weighting, and to explore differences with vision where it may apply more readily (e.g. Kok et al., 2012; Zhao et al., 2013).”
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“The evidence discussed so far suggests that phase-dependent modulation of behavior is, at least to a certain extent, an automatic or bottom-up mechanism, that occurs regardless of whether it is behaviorally relevant or beneficial (Zhao et al., 2013; Breska and Deouell, 2014).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Zhao, J., Al-Aidroos, N., & Turk-Browne, N. B.
- Affiliations
- Princeton University (US)
- University of Guelph (CA)
- Princeton University
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2013-04-04
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 667-677
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- PMC
- PMC3734864
- OpenAlex
- W2145638643
- Cited by
- 266
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 8
- FWCI
- 12.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Eye Institute (R01EY021755)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Visual Attention and Saliency Detection
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- attentional bias, statistical learning, temporal regularity, spatial attention, feature attention, visual search, attentional capture, singleton detection, bottom-up attention, top-down attention
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attention, Cognition, Female, Humans, Male, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Photic Stimulation, Reaction Time, Space Perception, Students, Visual Perception, Bias, Young Adult
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