A dissociation between the effects of expectations and attention in selective visual processing

Zivony, Alon; Eimer, Martin · 2024 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105864

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Summary

This study investigates whether probabilistic expectations influence visual perception directly or indirectly through selective attention. While it is often claimed that expectations facilitate the identification of expected stimuli, this effect is frequently confounded by attentional mechanisms, as expected features may attract attention due to increased salience or task relevance. Zivony and Eimer (2024) aimed to dissociate these effects by manipulating expectations regarding high-level alphanumeric categories (letters vs. digits) while ensuring these categories could not guide attentional selection. The researchers conducted four experiments involving 60 participants using a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm. In Experiment 1, participants identified targets cued by a low-level shape feature (a circle), with the target’s alphanumeric category probabilistically manipulated (75% expected, 25% unexpected). Because the target was defined by the shape cue rather than its category, and distractors shared the target’s category, the category feature should not have guided attention. Experiments 2–4 expanded on this design by incorporating measures of attentional guidance (spatial cueing), engagement (attentional blink), and electrophysiological markers (N2pc component) to determine if expectations modulated earlier attentional processes. Results demonstrated that targets from the expected category were identified with significantly higher accuracy than those from the unexpected category across all experiments. Crucially, these expectation effects were not accompanied by any modulation of attentional indices. Behavioral measures of spatial attention shifts and attentional engagement, as well as the N2pc ERP component reflecting attentional engagement, remained unaffected by category-based expectations. However, Experiment 4 revealed that expectations did influence later stages of processing linked to working memory encoding. The authors ruled out alternative explanations such as repetition priming or response bias through supplementary analyses. The findings provide evidence for a dissociation between expectation and attention, suggesting that expectations can affect perception independently of selective attentional mechanisms. Specifically, expectations appear to adjust the threshold for encoding information into working memory, thereby facilitating the processing of expected stimuli without altering the guidance or engagement of attention. This challenges the view that expectation effects are necessarily mediated by attention and supports models where top-down predictions directly influence late-stage perceptual encoding.

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