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Capturing attention is not that simple: different mechanisms for stimulus-driven and contingent capture
1Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei, Taiwan, 10617.
Attention, Perception & Psychophysics
|September 17, 2013
Summary
Attentional capture by stimuli depends on stimulus properties. Onset cues trigger involuntary attention, while color cues engage voluntary, feature-based attention, supporting a hybrid model of attentional orienting.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Attentional orienting can be involuntary, but whether it's stimulus-driven or top-down controlled is debated.
- Stimulus properties like transient vs. static features may influence attentional capture differently.
- A hybrid account proposes that top-down control modulates stimulus-driven and contingent capture distinctively.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether attentional capture is purely stimulus-driven or contingent on top-down settings.
- To test a hybrid account where stimulus properties (onset vs. color) are differentially modulated by top-down controls.
- To differentiate mechanisms of stimulus-driven and contingent attentional capture.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a spatial cuing paradigm with noninformative onset or color cues.
- Varied stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) between cues and targets.
- Employed onset and color targets to assess cue-target interactions.
Main Results:
- Onset cues captured attention irrespective of target type at short SOAs, but not long SOAs.
- Color cues captured attention at both short and long SOAs, but only when the target was also a color.
- Distinct patterns for onset and color cues suggest different capture mechanisms.
Conclusions:
- Results support a hybrid model of attentional capture, differentiating stimulus-driven and contingent mechanisms.
- Stimulus-driven capture (by onset) elicits reflexive, involuntary orienting.
- Contingent capture (by color) involves voluntary, feature-based attentional enhancement.
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