Attention and distraction in the predictive brain

Heleen A. Slagter; Dirk van Moorselaar

doi:10.1080/13506285.2021.1936733

Attention and distraction in the predictive brain

Heleen A. Slagter^*
, Dirk van Moorselaar

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Whether it is possible to ignore a physically salient distractor has been a topic of active debate over the past 25 years, with empirical evidence for and against each of the theoretical stances. We put forward that predictive processing may provide a unified theoretical perspective that can account reasonably well for the empirical literature on attentional capture. In this perspective, capture is a logical consequence of the overall imperative of the brain to predict what sensory signals provide precise information to achieve goal-directed behaviour.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	631-636
Number of pages	6
Journal	Visual Cognition
Volume	29
Issue number	9
Early online date	28 Sept 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2021.1936733
Publication status	Published - 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by European Research Council [(ERC) starting grant (679399)].

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Funding

This work was supported by European Research Council [(ERC) starting grant (679399)].

Funders	Funder number
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	679399
European Research Council

Keywords

Attentional capture
inhibition
predictive processing
statistical learning
visual search

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10.1080/13506285.2021.1936733

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AU - van Moorselaar, Dirk

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KW - inhibition

KW - predictive processing

KW - statistical learning

KW - visual search

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Attention and distraction in the predictive brain

Abstract

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Keywords

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