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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 7, 2025

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Published on: January 23, 2017

Spatial task relevance modulates value-driven attentional capture.

Xiaojin Ma¹, Richard A Abrams²

¹Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St Louis, MO, USA. xiaojinma@wustl.edu.

Attention, Perception & Psychophysics

|June 22, 2022

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Visual attention is drawn to rewarding stimuli, but this effect disappears when the stimuli are in irrelevant locations. Value-associated stimuli only capture attention if they are task-relevant, challenging prior assumptions.

Keywords:

Attention: selective Attentional capture

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Published on: March 18, 2019

Area of Science:

Cognitive psychology
Neuroscience
Visual attention research

Background:

Attention is often captured by stimuli associated with reward.
Previous research focused on value-associated stimuli at relevant locations.
The role of location-specific task relevance in attentional capture was unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if the attentional priority of value-associated stimuli is modulated by location-wise task relevance.
To compare the attentional capture of value-associated distractors versus goal-associated distractors.
To determine if value-associated stimuli retain attentional priority in task-irrelevant locations.

Main Methods:

Employed a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task across three experiments.
Presented peripheral distractors with either value-associated or goal-matching colors.
Assessed attentional capture at a location irrelevant to the primary search task.

Main Results:

Value-associated distractors at task-irrelevant locations did not capture attention.
Distractors matching the top-down search goal captured attention, even at irrelevant locations.
Attentional priority of value-associated stimuli is dependent on their task relevance.

Conclusions:

Value-associated stimuli lose their attentional priority when presented in task-irrelevant locations.
Task relevance, not just stimulus value, is critical for attentional capture.
Findings challenge the notion that reward-associated stimuli automatically capture attention regardless of context.