Hidden from view: Statistical learning exposes latent attentional capture

Hilchey, Matthew D.; Pratt, Jay · 2019 · Crossref

DOI: 10.3758/s13423-019-01618-5

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Summary

This study investigates whether salient visual stimuli that do not resemble a search target truly fail to capture attention, or if such capture is merely latent and obscured by top-down control settings. Previous research using contingent-capture paradigms suggested that abrupt-onset cues and color singletons only capture attention if they match the target’s defining features. However, recent evidence indicated that abrupt-onset cues might capture attention in difficult search displays, suggesting that capture in easy displays could be masked. The authors hypothesized that statistical learning could expose this latent capture: if a mismatching cue reliably predicts the target location, participants should implicitly learn this association only if the cue initially attracts attention. The researchers conducted two experiments using a four-location contingent-capture paradigm with easy search displays. Participants searched for a red target among distractors. In Experiment 1, cues were color singletons (red match or green mismatch). In Experiment 2, cues were either a red color match or a white abrupt-onset mismatch. Crucially, the mismatch cues predicted the target location with high validity (81.5%), while match cues did not (25%). Participants were unaware of this statistical relationship. Response times were analyzed across three blocks of trials to assess changes in attentional capture over time. Experiment 1 found that the red match cue consistently captured attention, while the green mismatch color cue failed to produce capture in any block, despite its predictive validity. This indicates that the color mismatch cue was effectively ignored, preventing statistical learning. In contrast, Experiment 2 revealed a dissociation. While the match cue captured attention throughout, the abrupt-onset mismatch cue showed no capture in the first block. However, in Blocks 2 and 3, the abrupt-onset cue significantly facilitated responses at the cued location. This emergence of capture after the initial block demonstrates that participants learned the predictive relationship between the abrupt-onset cue and the target, which is only possible if the cue initially attracted attention. These findings suggest that attentional control sets are not absolute filters; abrupt-onset cues retain a special status and capture attention even when they mismatch the target, though this effect can be masked in standard paradigms. Statistical learning serves as an effective diagnostic tool to reveal such latent capture. The results imply that previous contingent-capture studies may have underestimated the power of abrupt-onset cues. Furthermore, the failure of the color mismatch cue to show latent capture suggests that color singletons lacking target similarity are more effectively suppressed than abrupt onsets, highlighting distinct mechanisms for different types of salient distractors.

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Topics

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• attention selective divided
• inattentional change blindness