A new object captures attention--but only when you know it's new

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Visual Perception
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Two hypotheses explain attention capture by sudden objects: visual transients triggering automatic orienting, or novelty prompting attentional focus.
• Previous research suggested visual transients, not object novelty, drive attention capture.

Purpose of the Study:

• To re-evaluate the role of object novelty versus visual transients in attentional capture.
• To investigate whether modifying encoding conditions could alter attention capture by new objects.

Main Methods:

• Replication and extension of Franconeri et al. (2005) procedure, which concealed onset transients.
• Experiments manipulating the encoding of existing object locations before new object introduction.

Main Results:

• Replicated findings that concealed onset transients reduce attention capture.
• Demonstrated that when locations of existing items were well-encoded, newly introduced objects successfully captured attention.
• This suggests that object novelty *can* drive attention capture under specific perceptual conditions.

Conclusions:

• The visual system's ability to identify an object as 'new' is crucial for novelty-driven attention capture.
• Attention capture is not solely dependent on visual transients; object novelty plays a significant role when perceptual conditions allow for its detection.