Document Type
Article
Abstract
Recent studies of visual search suggest that learning about valued outcomes (rewards and punishments) influences the likelihood that distractors will capture spatial attention and slow search for a target, even when those value-related distractors have never themselves been the targets of search. In the present study, we demonstrated a related effect in the context of temporal, rather than spatial, selection. Participants were presented with a temporal stream of pictures in a fixed central location and had to identify the orientation of a rotated target picture. Response accuracy was reduced if the rotated target was preceded by a “valued” distractor picture that signaled that a correct response to the target would be rewarded (and an incorrect response punished), relative to a distractor picture that did not signal reward or punishment. This effect of signal value on response accuracy was short-lived, being most prominent with a short lag between distractor and target. Impairment caused by a valued distractor was observed if participants were explicitly instructed regarding its relation to reward/punishment (Exps. 1, 3, and 4), or if they could learn this relationship only via trial-by-trial experience (Exp. 2). These findings show that the influence of signal value on attentional capture extends to temporal selection, and also demonstrate that value-related distractors can interfere with the conscious perception of subsequent target information.
DOI Link
Publication Date
2017-08-01
Publication Title
Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics
Volume
79
Issue
6
Publisher
Springer
ISSN
1943-393X
Embargo Period
2024-11-22
First Page
1628
Last Page
1642
Recommended Citation
Le Pelley, M., Seabrooke, T., Kennedy, B., Pearson, D., & et al. (2017) 'Miss it and miss out: Counterproductive nonspatial attentional capture by task-irrelevant, value-related stimuli', Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 79(6), pp. 1628-1642. Springer: Available at: 10.3758/s13414-017-1346-1
