The role of unique color changes and singletons in attention capture

Previous studies have shown that a sudden color change is typically less salient in capturing attention than the onset of a new object. Von Mühlenen, Rempel, and Enns (Psychological Science 16: 979-986, 2005) showed that a color change can capture attention as effectively as the onset of a new object given that it occurs during a period of temporal calm, where no other display changes happen. The current study presents a series of experiments that further investigate the conditions under which a change in color captures attention, by disentangling the change signal from the onset of a singleton. The results show that the item changing color receives attentional priority irrespective of whether this change goes along with the appearance of a singleton or not.