Prior target locations attract overt attention during search

A key question about visual search is how we guide attention to objects that are relevant to our goals. Traditionally, theories of visual attention have emphasized guidance by explicit knowledge of the target feature. But there is growing evidence that attention is also implicitly guided by prior experience. One such example is the phenomenon of location priming, whereby attention is automatically allocated to the location where the search target was previously found. Problematically, much of the previous evidence for location priming has been disputed because it relies exclusively on manual response time, making unclear the relative contribution of location priming on attentional allocation and later cognitive processes. The current study addressed this issue by measuring shifts of gaze, which provide a more direct measure of attentional orienting. In five experiments, first saccades were strongly attracted to the target location from the previous trial, even though this location was not predictive of the target location on the current trial. This oculomotor priming effect was so strong that it effectively disrupted attentional guidance to the search target. The results suggest that memories of recent experience can powerfully influence attentional allocation.