The control of attention to faces.

Humans attend to faces. This study examines the extent to which attention biases to faces are under top-down control. In a visual cueing paradigm, observers responded faster to a target probe appearing in the location of a face cue than of a competing object cue (Experiments 1a and 2a). This effect could be reversed when faces were negatively predictive of the likely target location, making it beneficial to attend to the object cues (Experiments 1b and 2b). It was easier still to strategically shift attention to predictive face cues (Experiment 2c), indicating that the endogenous allocation of attention was augmented here by an additional effect. However, faces merely delayed the voluntary deployment of attention to object cues, but they could not prevent it, even at short cue-target intervals. This finding suggests that attention biases for faces can be rapidly countered by an observer's endogenous control.

[1]  J. Jonides.  Voluntary versus automatic control over the mind's eye's movement , 1981 .

[2]  J. Findlay,et al.  The effect of visual attention on peripheral discrimination thresholds in single and multiple element displays. , 1988, Acta psychologica.

[3]  H J Müller,et al.  Movement versus focusing of visual attention , 1989, Perception & psychophysics.

[4]  H. J. Muller,et al.  Reflexive and voluntary orienting of visual attention: time course of activation and resistance to interruption. , 1989, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[5]  James L. McClelland,et al.  On the control of automatic processes: a parallel distributed processing account of the Stroop effect. , 1990, Psychological review.

[6]  J. Theeuwes.  Cross-dimensional perceptual selectivity , 1991, Perception & psychophysics.

[7]  M. Cheal,et al.  Central and Peripheral Precuing of Forced-Choice Discrimination , 1991, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[8]  J. C. Johnston,et al.  Involuntary attentional capture by abrupt onsets , 1992, Perception & psychophysics.

[9]  S. Yantis.  2. Attentional capture in vision , 1996 .

[10]  E. Miller,et al.  Neural Activity in the Primate Prefrontal Cortex during Associative Learning , 1998, Neuron.

[11]  V. Bruce,et al.  Reflexive visual orienting in response to the social attention of others , 1999 .

[12]  S. Baron-Cohen,et al.  Gaze Perception Triggers Reflexive Visuospatial Orienting , 1999 .

[13]  S. Wise,et al.  Rule-dependent neuronal activity in the prefrontal cortex , 1999, Experimental Brain Research.

[14]  A. Mack,et al.  Metacontrast Masking and Attention , 1999 .

[15]  L. Chelazzi,et al.  Volitional Covert Orienting to a Peripheral Cue Does Not Suppress Cue-induced Inhibition of Return , 2000, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[16]  P. Vuilleumier,et al.  Faces call for attention: evidence from patients with visual extinction , 2000, Neuropsychologia.

[17]  E. Miller,et al.  An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function. , 2001, Annual review of neuroscience.

[18]  N. Lavie,et al.  Changing Faces: A Detection Advantage in the Flicker Paradigm , 2001, Psychological science.

[19]  A. Mack,et al.  What we see: Inattention and the capture of attention by meaning , 2002, Consciousness and Cognition.

[20]  J. Theeuwes,et al.  Attentional and oculomotor capture with static singletons , 2003, Perception & psychophysics.

[21]  Michael Petrides,et al.  The mid‐ventrolateral prefrontal cortex: insights into its role in memory retrieval , 2003, The European journal of neuroscience.

[22]  Andrew J Waters,et al.  Attentional shifts to smoking cues in smokers. , 2003, Addiction.

[23]  B. Jones,et al.  A flicker paradigm for inducing change blindness reveals alcohol and cannabis information processing biases in social users. , 2003, Addiction.

[24]  B. Milliken,et al.  Independent effects of endogenous and exogenous spatial cueing: inhibition of return at endogenously attended target locations , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[25]  J. Theeuwes.  Top-down search strategies cannot override attentional capture , 2004, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[26]  R. Rafal,et al.  Competition between endogenous and exogenous orienting of visual attention. , 2005, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[27]  M. Bindemann,et al.  Faces retain attention , 2005, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[28]  Giovanni Berlucchi,et al.  Inhibition of return: A phenomenon in search of a mechanism and a better name , 2006, Cognitive neuropsychology.

[29]  J. Theeuwes,et al.  Faces capture attention: Evidence from inhibition of return , 2006 .