Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 16, 2026
06:46
Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity
Published on: March 18, 2019
Dynamic competition between selective attention and spatial prediction during visual search
Floortje G Bouwkamp1, Jorie J G van Haren1, Floris P de Lange1
1Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University.
Summary
Spatial predictions guide visual search, but attention controls their use. Learning spatial context occurs even outside focus, but using it requires attention, demonstrating a dynamic interaction between attention and prediction.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Visual search relies on selective attention and spatial predictions.
- The interaction between these mechanisms is not fully understood.
- Contextual cueing paradigms can reveal how spatial predictions are learned and used.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if spatial predictive context can be learned and exploited outside attentional focus.
- To examine the interaction between selective attention and spatial predictions during visual search.
- To determine how attentional stability influences the exploitation of spatial predictive context.
Main Methods:
- A contextual cueing paradigm was employed.
- Participants searched for targets in scenes with predictable spatial layouts.
- The attentional status of predictive contexts was manipulated by changing target colors.
Main Results:
- Spatial predictive context was exploited both within and outside attentional focus when attention frequently switched.
- When attention was stable, only attended predictive context was exploited before a color change.
- Previously ignored predictive contexts showed immediate benefits after a color change, indicating latent learning.
Conclusions:
- Learning of spatial predictive context can occur independently of attention.
- Exploitation of spatial predictions may require attentional selection.
- Selective attention gates the influence of spatial predictions, with gating strength dependent on attentional control stability.
