Investigating attentional control sets: Evidence for the compilation of multi-feature control sets

Merz, Simon; Beege, Frank; Schöpper, Lars-Michael; Spence, Charles; Frings, Christian · 2022 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.3758/s13414-022-02566-4

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Summary

This study investigates the structure of top-down attentional control sets, specifically testing whether multiple selection features can be compiled into a single control set to govern stimulus-driven attentional capture. While the contingent capture hypothesis posits that distractors automatically attract attention only if they match the features of the current search template, prior research has largely focused on single-feature manipulations. The authors address the gap regarding how multiple features (e.g., color, location, orientation) interact within these control sets and whether the strength of attentional capture scales with the degree of feature overlap between a distractor and the top-down set. To test this, the researchers conducted three experiments using a non-spatial response compatibility task. Participants were required to respond to the shape of a target stimulus while ignoring a preceding distractor. The experimental design manipulated the predictability of target features to determine if participants incorporated them into their attentional control sets. In a "fixed target" condition, target features (such as location and color in Experiment 1, or orientation and color in Experiment 2) were constant, allowing participants to form multi-feature control sets. In a "randomized target" control condition, these features varied unpredictably, preventing their inclusion in the control set. The distractors were categorized by the number of features overlapping with the target’s control set: three features (response feature plus two selection features), two features, or one feature (response feature only). This design allowed the authors to dissociate effects driven by top-down control from those driven by bottom-up perceptual priming. The results across all three experiments demonstrated that distractor interference, measured by response compatibility effects, decreased linearly as the feature overlap between the distractor and the top-down control set decreased. Crucially, this decline was significantly steeper in the fixed target condition compared to the randomized condition. In the randomized condition, where participants could not form multi-feature control sets, the reduction in interference was smaller and attributed primarily to perceptual similarity. The significant interaction between feature overlap and target condition confirms that the magnitude of attentional capture is determined by the match between the distractor and the participant’s top-down expectations, rather than mere perceptual priming. These findings provide robust evidence for the compilation of multi-feature attentional control sets. The study supports a binary comparison model where the efficiency of involuntary attentional capture declines as target-distractor similarity decreases. This suggests that top-down control is not limited to single-feature templates but can integrate multiple relevant features to filter out distractors. The results refine contemporary theories of visual attention by demonstrating that the strength of contingent capture is graded based on the extent of feature overlap with the active control set, highlighting the flexibility and complexity of top-down attentional mechanisms.

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• attention selective divided