Prediction and Prioritisation: How Reward Learning Shapes Attentional Capture

A traditional view of selective attention distinguishes between goal-directed and stimulus-driven mechanisms of attentional control. More recently, a large (and growing) body of research has identified a third class of control system-termed selection history-wherein attentional prioritisation is shaped by our prior experience with stimuli, independently of our goals and the physical salience of those stimuli. This article reviews work within this selection history literature demonstrating that prioritisation is rapidly and automatically modulated by learning about the rewards associated with stimuli, and argues for a framework that distinguishes between history-driven processes implementing attentional exploitation (the drive to leverage reliable information) and attentional exploration (the drive to resolve uncertainty, with the aim of validating potential new sources of information). Findings such as these highlight a fundamental and intricate interaction between learning and attention, wherein our prior experience shapes the way in which we extract information from our environment-with potential consequences for understanding the subsequent decisions that we make and choices that we take.