Goal-driven attentional capture by invisible colors: Evidence from event-related potentials

Ansorge, Ulrich; Kiss, Mónika; Eimer, Martin · 2009 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.3758/pbr.16.4.648

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Summary

This study investigates whether subliminal visual stimuli can capture attention in a goal-dependent manner, challenging the view that strategic top-down modulation is inaccessible to unconscious processing. While previous research established that task goals influence attentional capture for consciously perceived stimuli, it remained unclear if such contingent capture occurs for stimuli below the threshold of awareness. The authors aimed to provide both behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for this phenomenon using event-related potentials (ERPs) and reaction time measures. The experimental design involved eight participants performing two tasks with identical stimulus sequences. Each trial began with a cue display of four colored rings, followed 51 milliseconds later by a target display of four angular figures. Metacontrast masking rendered the cue rings invisible. In the search task, participants identified the shape of a visible target defined by a specific color. In the cue localization task, participants attempted to identify the location of the masked target-color cue. EEG data were recorded to analyze the N2pc component, an ERP marker of attentional selection occurring 180–300 milliseconds post-stimulus. Results demonstrated a clear dissociation between awareness and attentional capture. In the cue localization task, performance was at chance level, confirming that the cues were not consciously perceived. However, in the search task, participants exhibited significant spatial cuing effects, responding faster to targets appearing at the location of the masked target-color cue. Crucially, ERPs revealed that these invisible cues elicited a robust N2pc component in the search task, indicating attentional selection. This N2pc was absent in the cue localization task, despite identical physical stimuli. The magnitude of the cue-induced N2pc was smaller than the target-induced N2pc but statistically significant, and its presence depended entirely on the active task set. The findings conclude that task-set contingent attentional capture is not restricted to supraliminal stimuli but is also elicited by visual events that are not consciously perceived. This suggests that while stimulus awareness may be necessary for establishing or changing task goals, it is not required for the application of an existing goal to guide attention. The study provides evidence that top-down goals can modulate the selection of subliminal stimuli, implying that unconscious processing is more flexible and goal-directed than previously assumed.

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Topics

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• attention selective divided
• inattentional change blindness