Implicit attentional biases in a changing environment

Benchi Wang*, Jan Theeuwes

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

The current study investigates whether statistical regularities that change over time affect attentional selection. While searching for a target singleton, the distractor singleton was presented much more often in one location than in all other locations. Crucially, the location that had a distractor much more often, changed to new locations during the course of the experiment. Here we established exactly how the bias of attention followed these changes in the display. Unlike previous studies, we show that selection was remarkably flexible as the attentional bias followed the changes in the environment incorporating contributions of previous contingencies to the current attentional bias. Importantly, the initial learning experience had a lingering and enduring effect on subsequent attentional biases. We argue that the weights within the spatial priority map of selection are adjusted to changing environments, even though observers are unaware of these changes in the environment.

Original languageEnglish
Article number103064
Pages (from-to)1-10
Number of pages10
JournalActa Psychologica
Volume206
Early online date13 May 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2020

Keywords

  • Attentional capture
  • Implicit bias
  • Statistical learning
  • Suppression

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