Proactive suppression can be applied to multiple salient distractors in visual search.

Drisdelle, Brandi Lee; Eimer, Martin · 2023 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1037/xge0001398

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Summary

This study investigates whether proactive suppression, a mechanism that prevents attentional capture by salient distractors, can be applied simultaneously to multiple irrelevant items. While previous research established that humans can suppress a single salient distractor, it remained unknown if this inhibitory control extends to crowded visual environments containing multiple competing signals. The authors aimed to determine if suppression is limited to the most salient item (single-item suppression) or if it can be flexibly allocated to multiple distractors concurrently (multiple-item suppression). The researchers employed a visual search paradigm using behavioral and electrophysiological (ERP) measures. Participants searched for a shape-defined target among distractors in displays containing either zero, one, or two uniquely colored distractors. The two distractor conditions included a highly salient item (S+) and a less salient item (S−). To isolate neural markers of suppression, the authors analyzed the PD component, an ERP positivity associated with the inhibition of salient singletons. They manipulated spatial configurations so that S+ and S− appeared either together or separately, allowing for the distinct measurement of PD responses to each distractor type. Behavioral results demonstrated a "singleton benefit," where response times and accuracy improved as the number of salient distractors increased. Specifically, performance was significantly better in displays with two salient distractors compared to those with one, indicating that the effective set size was reduced by suppressing both items. This benefit persisted even when target predictability was reduced, ruling out alternative explanations based on attentional guidance by target templates. Electrophysiologically, when S+ and S− always appeared together, the PD component was triggered exclusively by the more salient S+ distractor. However, when displays with one or both distractors were intermixed, a reliable PD component was also elicited by the less salient S− distractor, even when it co-occurred with S+. These findings provide robust evidence that proactive suppression can be applied to multiple concurrent salient signals. The study demonstrates that inhibitory mechanisms in selective attention are flexible and can counteract visual distraction at different locations simultaneously. This challenges the view that suppression is strictly limited to a single object and highlights the adaptive capacity of the visual system to filter irrelevant information in complex, real-world environments. The results support the signal suppression hypothesis, showing that top-down control settings can effectively inhibit multiple priority signals to facilitate the selection of relevant objects.

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Topics

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• visual search
• attention selective divided