Spatial suppression due to statistical regularities in a visual detection task

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Abstract

Increasing evidence demonstrates that observers can learn the likely location of salient singleton distractors during visual search. To date, the reduced attentional capture at high-probability distractor locations has typically been examined using so called compound search, in which by design a target is always present. Here, we explored whether statistical distractor learning can also be observed in a visual detection task, in which participants respond target present if the singleton target is present and respond target absent when the singleton target is absent. If so, this allows us to examine suppression of the location that is likely to contain a distractor both in the presence, but critically also in the absence, of a priority signal generated by the target singleton. In an online variant of the additional singleton paradigm, observers had to indicate whether a unique shape was present or absent, while ignoring a colored singleton, which appeared with a higher probability in one specific location. We show that attentional capture was reduced, but not absent, at high-probability distractor locations, irrespective of whether the display contained a target or not. By contrast, target processing at the high-probability distractor location was selectively impaired on distractor-present displays. Moreover, all suppressive effects were characterized by a gradient such that suppression scaled with the distance to the high-probability distractor location. We conclude that statistical distractor learning can be examined in visual detection tasks, and discuss the implications for attentional suppression due to statistical learning.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)450-458
Number of pages9
JournalAttention, Perception & Psychophysics
Volume84
Issue number2
Early online date12 Nov 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2022

Funding

This research was supported by a European Research Council (ERC) advanced grant (833029) to J.T. D.v.M. contributed to design, collected the data, performed the analyses, and contributed most of the writing. J.T. was closely involved in the design of the experiment and the analysis plan and made significant contributions to the writing.

FundersFunder number
European Research Council833029

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