The effect of target-related and target-irrelevant novel stimuli on response behaviour

Novel events catch our attention, which can influence performance of a task. Whether this attentional capture by novelty benefits or impairs performance depends on several factors, such as the relevance of the stimulus, task requirements, and the timing of the event. Additionally, it has been argued that novel stimuli can hold intrinsic reward value, which may directly affect approach motivation, similar to positive valence stimuli. This link between novelty and approach/avoid behaviour has not been investigated directly. Here, we investigated whether stimulus novelty interacts with response behaviour in an approach/avoidance task, and whether these effects depend on the task relevance of novelty and stimulus timing. In experiment 1, participants gave an approach or avoid response dependent on a shape (diamond or square) presented at different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) following a novel or familiar scene (target-irrelevant novelty). In experiment 2, participants had to approach or avoid a novel or familiar image depending on the content (indoor/outdoor; target-related novelty). A shape was presented at different SOA. Results of a linear mixed model showed novelty-induced performance costs as demonstrated by longer RT and lower accuracy when novelty was target-relevant, likely due to attentional lingering at novel images. When images were target-irrelevant, approach but not avoid responses were faster for familiar versus novel images at 200 ms SOA only. Thus, novelty had a differentially pronounced detrimental effect on performance. These observations confirm that processing of novel stimuli generally depends on stimulus relevance, and tentatively suggests that differential processing of novel and familiar images is intensified by motivated approach behaviour.