TY - JOUR

T1 - Attentional Capture by Salient Distractors during Visual Search Is Determined by Temporal Task Demands

AU - Kiss, Monika

AU - Grubert, Anna

AU - Petersen, Anders

AU - Eimer, Martin

PY - 2012/3

Y1 - 2012/3

N2 - The question whether attentional capture by salient but taskirrelevantvisual stimuli is triggered in a bottom–up fashion ordepends on top–down task settings is still unresolved. Strong supportfor bottom–up capture was obtained in the additional singletontask, in which search arrays were visible until response onset.Equally strong evidence for top–down control of attentional capturewas obtained in spatial cueing experiments in which displaydurations were very brief. To demonstrate the critical role of temporaltask demands on salience-driven attentional capture, wemeasured ERP indicators of capture by task-irrelevant color singletonsin search arrays that could also contain a shape target. InExperiment 1, all displays were visible until response onset. InExperiment 2, display duration was limited to 200 msec. With longdisplay durations, color singleton distractors elicited an N2pc componentthat was followed by a late Pd component, suggesting thatthey triggered attentional capture, which was later replaced bylocation-specific inhibition. When search arrays were visible foronly 200 msec, the distractor-elicited N2pc was eliminated andwas replaced by a Pd component in the same time range, indicativeof rapid suppression of capture. Results show that attentionalcapture by salient distractors can be inhibited for short-durationsearch displays, in which it would interfere with target processing.They demonstrate that salience-driven capture is not a purelybottom–up phenomenon but is subject to top–down control.

AB - The question whether attentional capture by salient but taskirrelevantvisual stimuli is triggered in a bottom–up fashion ordepends on top–down task settings is still unresolved. Strong supportfor bottom–up capture was obtained in the additional singletontask, in which search arrays were visible until response onset.Equally strong evidence for top–down control of attentional capturewas obtained in spatial cueing experiments in which displaydurations were very brief. To demonstrate the critical role of temporaltask demands on salience-driven attentional capture, wemeasured ERP indicators of capture by task-irrelevant color singletonsin search arrays that could also contain a shape target. InExperiment 1, all displays were visible until response onset. InExperiment 2, display duration was limited to 200 msec. With longdisplay durations, color singleton distractors elicited an N2pc componentthat was followed by a late Pd component, suggesting thatthey triggered attentional capture, which was later replaced bylocation-specific inhibition. When search arrays were visible foronly 200 msec, the distractor-elicited N2pc was eliminated andwas replaced by a Pd component in the same time range, indicativeof rapid suppression of capture. Results show that attentionalcapture by salient distractors can be inhibited for short-durationsearch displays, in which it would interfere with target processing.They demonstrate that salience-driven capture is not a purelybottom–up phenomenon but is subject to top–down control.

U2 - 10.1162/jocn_a_00127

DO - 10.1162/jocn_a_00127

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 21861683

VL - 24

SP - 749

EP - 759

JO - Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

JF - Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

SN - 0898-929X

IS - 3

ER -