Attentional capture by visual singletons is mediated by top‐down task set: New evidence from the N2pc component

Kiss, Mónika; Jolicœur, Pierre; Dell’Acqua, Roberto; Eimer, Martin · 2008 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2008.00700.x

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Summary

This study investigates whether attentional capture by salient visual stimuli is driven purely by bottom-up sensory properties or is modulated by top-down task sets. The authors address a longstanding controversy in attention research: whether exogenous attention is automatically captured by the most salient item in a visual field, regardless of current goals, or if capture is contingent on the relevance of the stimulus features to the observer’s task. Previous behavioral and electrophysiological studies have produced mixed results regarding the specificity of this modulation, leaving unclear whether task sets influence capture at the level of general stimulus dimensions (e.g., color vs. shape) or specific features (e.g., red vs. blue). To resolve this, the researchers employed the N2pc component of event-related potentials (ERPs) as a neural marker of spatially selective attention. The N2pc is an enhanced negativity at posterior electrodes contralateral to attended stimuli, emerging 200–300 ms after display onset. In Experiment 1, 12 participants performed visual search tasks where they detected either a red circle (color task) or a green diamond (shape task) among uniform green circle distractors. Crucially, trials also included nontarget singletons: a blue circle (matching the target dimension but not feature in the color task) or a green square (matching the target dimension but not feature in the shape task). By comparing N2pc amplitudes for targets, relevant-dimension nontargets, and irrelevant-dimension nontargets, the study tested whether attentional capture occurs for stimuli that share the task-relevant dimension but not the specific target feature. The results demonstrated that the N2pc was strongly influenced by task instructions. The component was maximal for target singletons. For nontarget singletons defined in the target-relevant dimension (e.g., the blue circle in the color task), the N2pc was attenuated but still reliably present, even when accompanied by an irrelevant-dimension singleton. In contrast, the N2pc was small or absent for singletons defined in the task-irrelevant dimension (e.g., the green square in the color task). These findings indicate that attentional capture is not a purely bottom-up phenomenon triggered by physical salience alone. Instead, it is significantly determined by top-down task sets, operating at least at the level of stimulus dimensions. The study concludes that while specific feature matching enhances capture, the mere presence of a singleton in a task-relevant dimension is sufficient to attract attention, supporting a dimension-specific version of the contingent involuntary orienting hypothesis.

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• attention selective divided