Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 24, 2026

Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking
Published on: August 29, 2018
Attentional guidance relies on a winner-take-all mechanism
Alexandre Zénon1, Suliann Ben Hamed, Jean-René Duhamel
1Université Catholique de Louvain, Institute of Neuroscience, Brussels, Belgium. zenon@salk.edu
Abstract:
The finding that attention can encompass several non-contiguous items at once challenges the current models of visual search based on a winner-take-all mechanism assuming the selection of a single object. It has been proposed instead that attentional guidance involves mechanisms selecting all relevant items simultaneously. In order to test this hypothesis, we studied attentional allocation during various visual search tasks. We confirmed that attention can indeed select several items concurrently but on the basis of their spatial relation, not relevance. This finding corroborates the view that during visual search, attentional guidance is based on a winner-take-all mechanism.
Related Concept Videos
The Anchoring-and-Adjustment Heuristic
Hindsight Biases
Social Facilitation
Motivational Bias
Incentive Theory: Pull Theory of Motivation
The theory differentiates between intrinsic and...
Types of Selection

