Voluntary Control of Task Selection Does Not Eliminate the Impact of Selection History on Attention

The human visual system can only process a fraction of the information present in a typical visual scene, and selection is historically framed as the outcome of bottom-up and top-down control processes. In this study, we evaluated how a third factor, an individual's selection history, interacts with top-down control mechanisms during visual search. Participants in our task were assigned to one of two groups in which they developed a history of either shape or color selection in one task, while searching for a shape singleton in a second task. A voluntary task selection procedure allowed participants to choose which task they would perform on each trial, thereby maximizing their top-down preparation. We recorded EEG throughout and extracted lateralized ERP components that index target selection (N_T) and distractor suppression (P_D). Our results showed that selection history continued to guide attention during visual search, even when top-down control mechanisms were maximized with voluntary task selection. For participants with a history of color selection, the N_T component elicited by a shape target was attenuated when accompanied by a color distractor, and the distractor itself elicited a larger P_D component. In addition, task-switching results revealed that participants in the color group had larger, asymmetric switch costs implying increased competition between task sets. Our results support the notion that selection history is a significant factor in attention guidance, orienting the visual system reflexively to objects that contradict an individual's current goals-even when these goals are intrinsically selected and prepared ahead of time.