Surprise! An Unexpected Color Singleton Does Not Capture Attention in Visual Search

1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 176-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley S. Gibson ◽  
Yuhong Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Attentional Capture ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Present Experiment ◽  
Important Change ◽  
Pure Form ◽  
Color Singleton ◽  
Search Procedure ◽  
Highly Efficient ◽  
The Way

The existence of a pure form of stimulus-driven attentional control has been aligned exclusively with the existence of attentional capture. Unfortunately, there has been little evidence provided in support of attentional capture. The present study investigated whether the repeated failure to observe attentional capture might be due to the way in which attentional capture has been measured. A new visual search procedure was used to investigate whether attention would be captured by an initial and unexpected encounter with a color singleton. Despite this important change in procedure, the color singleton still did not capture attention. Further evidence showed that visual search for the color singleton could be highly efficient, but only after its relevance became established, and that the failure to observe capture in the present experiment was not due to other potentially detrimental effects of surprise. The present results suggest that new conceptions of stimulus-driven attentional control are required.

scholarly journals Changes in visual cortical processing attenuate singleton distraction during visual search

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Yeong Won ◽  
Martha Forloines ◽  
Zhiheng Zhou ◽  
Joy Geng
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Color Singleton ◽  
Distractor Interference ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
Visual Cortical ◽  
Singleton Target

The ability to suppress distractions is essential to successful completion of goal-directed behaviors. Several behavioral studies have recently provided strong evidence that learned suppression may be particularly efficient in reducing distractor interference. Expectations about a distractor’s repeated location, color, or even presence is rapidly learned and used to attenuate interference. In this study, we use a visual search paradigm in which a color singleton, which is known to capture attention, occurs within blocks with high or low frequency. The behavioral results show reduced singleton interference during the high compared to the low frequency block (Won et al., 2019). The fMRI results provide evidence that the attenuation of distractor interference is supported by changes in singleton, target, and non-salient distractor representations within retinotopic visual cortex. These changes in visual cortex are accompanied by findings that singleton-present trials compared to non-singleton trials produce greater activation in bilateral parietal cortex, indicative of attentional capture, in low frequency, but not high frequency blocks. Together, these results suggest that the readout of saliency signals associated with an expected color singleton from visual cortex is suppressed, resulting in less competition for attentional priority in frontoparietal attentional control regions.

Evidence for Attentional Capture by a Surprising Color Singleton in Visual Search

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 499-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gernot Horstmann
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Target Letter ◽  
Attentional Capture ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Color Singleton ◽  
Conjunction Search ◽  
Feature Search ◽  
Set Size ◽  
And Performance

Three experiments were conducted to investigate whether surprising color singletons capture attention. Participants performed a visual search task in which a target letter had to be detected among distractor letters. Experiments 1 and 2 assessed accuracy as the dependent variable. In Experiment 1, the unannounced presentation of a color singleton 500 ms prior to the letters (and in the same position as the target letter) resulted in better performance than in the preceding conjunction search segment, in which no singleton was presented, and performance was as good in this surprise-singleton trial as in the following feature search segment, in which the singleton always coincided with the target. In contrast, no improvement was observed when the color singleton was presented simultaneously with the letters in Experiment 2, indicating that attentional capture occurred later in the surprise trial than in the feature search segment. In Experiment 3, set size was varied, and reaction time was the dependent variable. Reaction time depended on set size in the conjunction search segment, but not in the surprise trial nor in the feature search segment. The results of the three experiments support the view that surprising color singletons capture attention independently of a corresponding attentional set.

scholarly journals Neural Dynamics of Cognitive Control over Working Memory Capture of Attention

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 1079-1090 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter S. Whitehead ◽  
Mathilde M. Ooi ◽  
Tobias Egner ◽  
Marty G. Woldorff
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Attentional Capture ◽  
Search Display ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
High Temporal Resolution ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Attentional Orienting ◽  
Behavioral Studies

The contents of working memory (WM) guide visual attention toward matching features, with visual search being faster when the target and a feature of an item held in WM spatially overlap (validly cued) than when they occur at different locations (invalidly cued). Recent behavioral studies have indicated that attentional capture by WM content can be modulated by cognitive control: When WM cues are reliably helpful to visual search (predictably valid), capture is enhanced, but when reliably detrimental (predictably invalid), capture is attenuated. The neural mechanisms underlying this effect are not well understood, however. Here, we leveraged the high temporal resolution of ERPs time-locked to the onset of the search display to determine how and at what processing stage cognitive control modulates the search process. We manipulated predictability by grouping trials into unpredictable (50% valid/invalid) and predictable (100% valid, 100% invalid) blocks. Behavioral results confirmed that predictability modulated WM-related capture. Comparison of ERPs to the search arrays showed that the N2pc, a posteriorly distributed signature of initial attentional orienting toward a lateralized target, was not impacted by target validity predictability. However, a longer latency, more anterior, lateralized effect—here, termed the “contralateral attention-related negativity”—was reduced under predictable conditions. This reduction interacted with validity, with substantially greater reduction for invalid than valid trials. These data suggest cognitive control over attentional capture by WM content does not affect the initial attentional-orienting process but can reduce the need to marshal later control mechanisms for processing relevant items in the visual world.

scholarly journals Attentional capture in visual search: Capture and post-capture dynamics revealed by EEG

NeuroImage ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 156 ◽  
pp. 166-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinrich René Liesefeld ◽  
Anna Marie Liesefeld ◽  
Thomas Töllner ◽  
Hermann J. Müller
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Attentional Capture

Entre Reforma e Contra-Reforma

1999 ◽  
Vol 7 (14) ◽  
pp. 99-116
Author(s):  
António Moreira Teixeira ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Creative Process ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Important Change ◽  
Artistic Expression ◽  
Divine Inspiration ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

By 1576, in order to obtain the censor’s permission to publish his two last treatises, the artist and philosopher Francisco de Holanda was forced to produce a major change in his conception of art. In an anticipation of the trend that was going to spread all over Europe some decades later, he agreed to replace his neo-platonic notion of an art of divine inspiration for a new conception of the artistic expression centred on the aristotelic caracterization of the human creative process. However, in doing that, Holanda paved the way for the development of a true methaphysics of art. In this article, the author intends to establish the network of philosophical influences that made possible this important change of course in the history of european aesthetics, as well as determine its implications.

scholarly journals Form, set organization and visual attention in illusory contours perception

Psihologija ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasilije Gvozdenovic
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Experimental Psychology ◽  
Illusory Contours ◽  
Target Figure ◽  
Simple Detection ◽  
The Way

Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, University of Belgrade The aim of the study was the investigation of form, spatial set organization and visual attention in visual search of illusory contours. Three visual search experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, where the simple detection procedure was used, subject's task was to detect square among vertical and horizontal lines. Other experiments investigated visual search of illusory contours in four different set organizations. Introduction of set organization was the way of manipulation of target's eccentricity among other elements. Analysis showed different type of search of the regular and the illusory square figure. The search profile of the regular square proved to be parallel, while all the searches of the illusory squares remained serial. Set organization had important role in visual search of illusory contours. Regardless of serial profile, visual search was faster in cases where target figure was more salient due to the background elements organization.

An EEG study of the combined effects of top-down and bottom-up attentional selection under varying task difficulty

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Einat Rashal ◽  
Mehdi Senoussi ◽  
Elisa Santandrea ◽  
Suliann Ben Hamed ◽  
Emiliano Macaluso ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Attentional Selection ◽  
Combined Effects ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Search Tasks

This work reports an investigation of the effect of combined top-down and bottom-up attentional control sources, using known attention-related EEG components that are thought to reflect target selection (N2pc) and distractor suppression (PD), in easy and difficult visual search tasks.

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