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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 9, 2026

Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking
05:58

Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking

Published on: August 29, 2018

Salient stimuli capture attention and action.

Dirk Kerzel1, Josef Schönhammer

  • 1Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Éducation, Université de Genève, 40 Boulevard du Pont d'Arve, 1205, Genève, Switzerland, dirk.kerzel@unige.ch.

Attention, Perception & Psychophysics
|August 7, 2013
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Salient stimuli, even irrelevant ones, capture attention during visual search tasks. This attentional capture influences action selection, as shown by changes in reaching movements, supporting a common mechanism for attention in action and perception.

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Last Updated: May 9, 2026

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Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity
06:46

Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity

Published on: March 18, 2019

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

  • Reaction times in visual search tasks are prolonged by salient, irrelevant stimuli.
  • The role of attentional capture by distractors has been recently debated.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether salient distractors capture attention during a reaching task.
  • To determine if attentional selection for action and perception share common mechanisms.

Main Methods:

  • A visual search task was combined with a reaching movement towards a touchscreen.
  • Observers reached for a target while ignoring a salient distractor.
  • Reach trajectories were analyzed to infer action selection timing.

Main Results:

  • Salient, irrelevant stimuli altered reach trajectories concurrently with target selection (approx. 270 ms after movement onset).
  • This trajectory deviation was corrected approximately 160 ms later.
  • Color targets were selected earlier than orientation targets, indicating faster selection for more salient stimuli.

Conclusions:

  • The findings suggest that attention is indeed captured by salient stimuli.
  • The results support the hypothesis of a common underlying mechanism for attentional selection in both action and perception.