Nonspatial interdimensional attentional capture

Inukai, Tomoe; Kawahara, Jun-Ichiro; Kumada, Takatsune · 2010 · Crossref

DOI: 10.3758/app.72.3.658

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Summary

This study investigates whether nonspatial interdimensional attentional capture—where a task-irrelevant distractor impairs target identification despite appearing in the same spatial location as the target—is driven by bottom-up stimulus salience or modulated by top-down attentional sets. Previous research established that spatial attentional capture can be eliminated if observers adopt a "feature search" mode (searching for a specific feature among heterogeneous items) rather than a "singleton detection" mode (searching for an oddball among homogeneous items). However, it remained unclear if this top-down control applies to nonspatial capture, particularly when the distractor differs from the target in a different dimension (cross-dimensional). To address this, the authors conducted two experiments using rapid serial visual presentation. In Experiment 1A, participants identified a tilted letter target while ignoring a color singleton distractor (a red letter or digit) presented immediately before the target at the same location. Participants were assigned to either a singleton detection group or a feature search group. Results showed that target identification accuracy was significantly impaired by the distractor in both groups, indicating that cross-dimensional nonspatial capture occurred regardless of search strategy. However, the impairment was marginally less severe in the feature search group, suggesting some top-down modulation. Experiment 1B ruled out forward masking as an alternative explanation by showing that non-unique red distractors did not impair performance. Experiment 2 replicated the design using stimuli composed of two objects (a letter within a colored frame) to align with previous within-dimensional studies. The findings demonstrate that nonspatial interdimensional attentional capture is robust and occurs even when observers employ a feature search strategy, contrasting with within-dimensional capture where feature search eliminates capture. While top-down knowledge did not completely eliminate the capture effect, it reduced its magnitude, indicating that attentional deployment is not purely stimulus-driven. The study concludes that nonspatial attention is more susceptible to bottom-up capture than spatial attention, but top-down sets still play a modulatory role. This clarifies the locus of control in attentional deployment, showing that the contingency principle of attentional capture depends on both the spatial relationship of stimuli and the dimensionality of the distractor.

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Topics

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• attention selective divided
• visual search
• inattentional change blindness