Statistical regularities bias overt attention

Benchi Wang*, Iliana Samara, Jan Theeuwes

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

A previous study employing the additional singleton paradigm showed that a singleton distractor that appeared more often in one specific location interfered less with target search than when it appeared at any other location. These findings suggested that through statistical learning the location that was likely to contain a distractor was suppressed relative to all other locations. Even though feasible, it is also possible that this effect is due to faster disengagement of attention from the high-probability distractor location. The present study tested this hypothesis using a variant of the additional singleton task adapted for eye tracking in which observers made a speeded saccade to a shape singleton and gave a manual response. The singleton distractor was presented more often at one location than all other locations. Consistent with the suppression hypothesis, we found that fewer saccades landed at the high-probability distractor location than any other location. Also, when a target appeared at the high-probability location, saccade latencies towards the target were higher than latencies towards the target when it was presented at other locations. Furthermore, in addition to suppression, we also found evidence for faster disengagement from the high-probability distractor location than the low-probability distractor location; however, this effect was relatively small. The current findings support the notion that through statistical learning plasticity is induced in the spatial priority map of attentional selection so that the high-probability distractor location is suppressed compared to any other location.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1813-1821
Number of pages9
JournalAttention, Perception, and Psychophysics
Volume81
Issue number6
Early online date27 Mar 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Aug 2019

Funding

This research was funded by a European Research Council (ERC) advanced grant (ERC-2012-AdG-323413) to Jan Theeuwes. The authors declare no conflict of interest. 1 The use of a relative RT cutoff (i.e., 2.5 SD strandard) did not change any of the results patterns.

FundersFunder number
Seventh Framework Programme323413
European Research Council

    Keywords

    • Attentional capture
    • Oculomotor suppression
    • Rapid disengagement hypothesis
    • Spatial priority map
    • Statistical regularities

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Statistical regularities bias overt attention'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this