The surprise-attention link: a review.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Attention Research

Background:

• The surprise-attention hypothesis posits a strong link between expectancy-discrepant events and attentional capture.
• Surprising stimuli readily engage attention, leading to prolonged dwell times and potentially faster processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review diverse research lines supporting the surprise-attention link.
• To examine the role of preattentive information in surprise-driven attentional capture.
• To discuss potential mechanisms underlying this relationship.

Main Methods:

• Review of empirical studies on attention shifts, validity effects, gaze shifts, natural scene discrepancies, surprise-induced blindness, and action interruption.
• Synthesis of evidence from various experimental paradigms.
• Analysis of reaction times and accuracy measures.

Main Results:

• Convergent evidence supports a general surprise-attention link.
• Evidence suggests a constant testing of expectancies across representational levels.
• Attentional engagement following surprise shows a latency of approximately 400 ms.
• This latency challenges models where early saliency automatically attracts attention.

Conclusions:

• The surprise-attention link is robust, with surprise acting as a potent attentional cue.
• The 400 ms latency suggests a sophisticated mechanism for detecting and responding to unexpected events.
• Future research should explore the neural and computational underpinnings of surprise-based attention.