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Attentional selection is biased towards controllable stimuli.

Greg Huffman1, James R Brockmole2

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Attention, Perception & Psychophysics
|March 14, 2020
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Individuals’ sense of agency over stimuli biases their attention towards controllable objects. This attentional bias strengthens with greater control, influencing visual selection regardless of task relevance.

Keywords:
Perception and ActionSelective

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

  • Extensive research exists on factors influencing an individual's sense of agency.
  • However, the cognitive consequences of this sense of agency remain underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether attentional selection is biased towards stimuli that individuals can control.
  • To determine how the degree of control affects this attentional bias.

Main Methods:

  • Three experiments were conducted where participants controlled one of four stimuli.
  • A visual search task was employed with varying probabilities of the target appearing on the controlled stimulus.
  • The degree of control and task relevance were manipulated across experiments.

Main Results:

  • A consistent attentional bias towards controllable stimuli was observed across all experiments.
  • The magnitude of this bias increased with the degree of control participants had over the stimulus.
  • This bias persisted even when the controlled stimulus was not predictive of the target location or when participants had to focus on a central cue.

Conclusions:

  • A sense of agency directs visual attention towards controllable objects.
  • This attentional prioritization is modulated by the level of perceived control.
  • The influence of agency on attention appears independent of task relevance and explicit decision-making.