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Abrupt onsets cannot be ignored.

Shawn E Christ1, Richard A Abrams

  • 1Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. christse@missouri.edu

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|March 3, 2007
PubMed
Summary
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Distractor letters appearing suddenly impaired performance on a letter identification task. This distraction was eliminated when participants could fixate on the target beforehand, suggesting fixation is key to ignoring distractors.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive psychology
  • Visual attention

Background:

  • Abrupt onsets often act as distractors in visual tasks.
  • Previous research suggested individuals can ignore such distractors under certain conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the distracting effect of abrupt onsets on letter identification.
  • To determine if anticipatory eye movements influence the ability to ignore distractors.

Main Methods:

  • Participants performed a letter identification task with cued locations.
  • Distractor letters with abrupt onsets were occasionally presented.
  • A subsequent experiment allowed anticipatory eye movements to the target.

Main Results:

  • Abrupt onsets significantly impaired letter identification performance when anticipatory eye movements were prevented.

Related Experiment Videos

  • The distracting effect of abrupt onsets was eliminated when participants could fixate on the target in advance.

    • Conclusions:

    • Abrupt onsets are distracting and impair performance unless the target is fixated.
    • The ability to ignore distractors may depend on the capacity for anticipatory eye movements to the target.