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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 23, 2025

Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking

Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking

Published on: August 29, 2018

Prospective Distractor Information Reduces Reward-Related Attentional Capture.

Justin Mahlberg¹, Daniel Pearson², Mike E Le Pelley³

¹Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Journal of Cognition

|June 24, 2024

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Providing advance information about upcoming distractors significantly reduces attentional bias for reward. This suggests that the drive to seek information, rather than just reward association, influences attention.

Keywords:

attention expectations incentive salience information seeking reward

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience

Background:

Motivationally salient stimuli, particularly rewards, automatically capture attention.
This attentional bias for reward is often linked to Pavlovian sign tracking.
Alternatively, attentional capture may serve an information-seeking function.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether providing forewarning about distractor features reduces reward-related attentional capture.
To differentiate between sign tracking and information-seeking explanations for attentional bias.

Main Methods:

Experiment 1: Used eye tracking to measure attentional capture when distractor color was forewarned.
Experiment 2: Employed a response-time task to assess the impact of forewarning about distractor color or reward value.
Experiment 3: Examined strategic inhibition based on pre-trial information.

Main Results:

Forewarning participants about the upcoming distractor color virtually eliminated reward-related attentional capture (Experiment 1).
Significant reductions in attentional capture were observed when participants received information about distractor color or reward value (Experiment 2).

Conclusions:

Reward-related attentional capture can be significantly reduced by providing advance information about distractors.
Findings support information-seeking accounts of attentional bias, suggesting attention is modulated by the drive to acquire knowledge about the environment.