The guidance of attention by templates for rejection during visual search

Berggren, Nick; Eimer, Martin · 2020 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.3758/s13414-020-02191-z

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Summary

This study investigates the controversial hypothesis that "templates for rejection" (negative search templates) facilitate visual search by actively guiding attention away from known distractors. While positive templates for target features are well-established, it remains disputed whether foreknowledge of nontarget features allows for immediate, template-driven suppression of distractors or if such knowledge initially interferes with search. The authors aimed to resolve this by combining behavioral measures with electrophysiological markers of attentional selection (N2pc) and distractor suppression (PD). The researchers conducted five experiments using a cueing paradigm where participants searched for Landolt squares with specific gap orientations among distractors. Cues signaled either the target color (positive), the nontarget color (negative), or an irrelevant color (neutral). To prevent location-based strategies, stimuli were arranged on vertical and horizontal midlines. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded to measure N2pc components, which indicate attentional allocation to targets, and PD components, which reflect distractor inhibition. Experiment 1 specifically examined whether negative cues produced immediate benefits or costs in reaction times (RTs) and N2pc onset latencies compared to neutral cues, and whether negatively cued distractors elicited attentional capture (N2pc) or suppression (PD). The results demonstrated that positive cues yielded significant performance benefits, with faster RTs and earlier N2pc onsets compared to neutral cues. In contrast, negative cues produced reliable behavioral and electrophysiological costs. Reaction times were significantly slower in negative cue blocks than in neutral blocks, and target N2pc components were delayed. Crucially, negatively cued distractors did not elicit N2pc components, indicating they did not initially attract attention, nor did they elicit PD components, suggesting no active suppression occurred. Subsequent experiments revealed that these negative cue costs dissipated after 25–50 trials of practice and eventually turned into benefits after hundreds of trials. However, these late-emerging benefits were not accompanied by electrophysiological evidence of faster or more efficient inhibition. The authors conclude that templates for rejection do not facilitate search through active attentional guidance. Instead, negative templates normally interfere with target selection, causing initial processing costs. The performance benefits observed after extensive practice are not mediated by learned suppression mechanisms or negative templates but are likely the result of passive habituation to repeated task-irrelevant features. This challenges the view that negative templates function analogously to positive templates in guiding attention, suggesting that distractor suppression is a slower, less efficient process than target selection.

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Topics

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• visual search
• attention selective divided