Reward history alters priority map based on spatial relationship, but not absolute location.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Attention is often drawn to stimuli associated with past rewards.
• However, previous research shows limited attentional priority for previously rewarded locations.
• Existing models struggle to explain this discrepancy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and test a relational account of value-driven attention.
• To investigate if spatial relationships, rather than absolute locations, guide attention towards rewards.
• To challenge the assumption of location specificity in value-driven attention.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments involving 124 participants.
• Training participants to associate specific locations with high or low rewards.
• An orientation-discrimination task assessing performance based on absolute location vs. spatial relationship to reward.

Main Results:

• Performance was better when the target's spatial relationship (e.g., "left of") matched high-reward associations.
• This effect persisted regardless of the target's absolute location.
• Reward impact was absent if the target matched the absolute location but not the spatial relationship.

Conclusions:

• Value-driven attention is guided by the spatial relationships between items, not solely by absolute locations.
• This relational mechanism integrates value and spatial information for adaptive behavior.
• Findings challenge traditional views of location-specific attention to rewards.