Attentional set and explicit expectations of perceptual load determine flanker interference

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Attention Research

Background:

• Distractors often capture attention, interfering with tasks.
• Perceptually complex tasks may reduce distractor interference, but mechanisms are debated (perceptual load vs. proactive control).

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate roles of perceptual load, proactive control, and reward motivation in distractor interference.
• Examine how cued expectations of load and reward influence attentional set and distractor exclusion.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments using visual search tasks with varying perceptual load (high, low, intermediate).
• Flanking task-irrelevant distractors presented.
• Cues indicated expected perceptual load and potential reward before each trial.

Main Results:

• Attentional set and cued expectation of perceptual load interacted to affect distractor interference.
• Interference was reduced only when high load was both expected and preceded by high load.
• Reward motivation did not modulate distractor interference but improved overall performance in one experiment.

Conclusions:

• Successful distractor exclusion relies on an expectation of high perceptual load, not motivation or load alone.
• Proactive control, specifically anticipating high load, is key for managing attentional set and ignoring distractors.