Value-driven attentional priority is context specific
Open accessAbstract
Attention is automatically drawn to stimulus features previously associated with reward, a phenomenon referred to as value-driven attentional capture. To date, value-driven attentional capture has been studied exclusively by manipulating stimulus-reward contingencies in an experimental setting. Although practical and intuitively appealing, this approach poses theoretical challenges to understanding the broader impact of reward on attention in everyday life. These challenges arise from the fact that associative learning between a given visual feature and reward is not limited to the context of an experiment, yet such extra-experimental learning is completely ignored in studies of value-driven attention. How is it, then, that experimentally established reward associations even influence attention, seemingly overshadowing any prior learning about particular features and rewards? And how do the effects of this experimental learning persist over long periods of time, in spite of all the intervening experiences outside of the lab that might interfere with the learning? One potential answer to these questions is that value-driven attention is context specific, such that different contexts evoke different value priors that the attention system uses to assign priority. In the present study, I directly tested this hypothesis. The results show that the same stimulus feature either does or does not capture attention, depending on whether it has been rewarded specifically in the context within which it appears. The findings provide insight into how multiple reward structures can efficiently guide attention with minimal interference.
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The influence of reward-based selection history has been suggested to be highly context-specific.
“the influence of reward-based selection history has been suggested to be highly context-specific (Anderson, 2015).”
From Selection history: How reward modulates selectivity of visual attention. (2018) · cites this paper as Anderson, 2015
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Selection history: How reward modulates selectivity of visual attention.
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“reward-based selection history has been suggested to be highly context-specific (Anderson, 2015).”
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- Authors
- Anderson, B. A.
- Affiliations
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Anderson, Brian A.
- ORCID
- Anderson, Brian A.
- Venue
- Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
- Published
- 2014-09-09
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 750-756
- ISSN
- 1069-9384 (ISSN-L)
- 1531-5320
- PMC
- PMC4362886
- OpenAlex
- W2043449937
- Cited by
- 99
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 7
- FWCI
- 4.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA013165, F31DA033754)
- 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
- value-driven attention, attentional capture, context specificity, reward association, associative learning, attentional priority, attentional interference
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Attention, Female, Humans, Male, Psychomotor Performance, Reward, Young Adult
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