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
10.3758/s13414-017-1346-1
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: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-017-1346-1
