Competition between color salience and perceptual load during visual selection can be biased by top-down set

Visual salience and perceptual load may both influence the efficiency of visual selection. Recently, Gibson and Bryant (2008) showed that perceptual load can dominate color salience in a distractor interference paradigm. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the possibility that knowledge (of color or load) may modulate the relative operation of these two mechanisms. Consistent with previous findings, perceptual load dominated color salience, but only in certain contexts in which display load was mixed and high-load displays preceded other high-load displays. More important, color salience dominated perceptual load in other contexts in which display load was mixed and low-load displays preceded high-load displays. In addition, color salience also dominated perceptual load in contexts in which display load was fixed and advance knowledge of load was available. Altogether, the present findings suggest that the competition between color salience and perceptual load can vary as a function of task context, thereby supporting top-down accounts, although the precise aspect of task context remains to be identified.

[1]  N. Lavie.  Distracted and confused?: Selective attention under load , 2005, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[2]  B. Gibson,et al.  Stimulus-driven attentional capture is contingent on attentional set for displaywide visual features. , 1998, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[3]  H. Pashler.  The Psychology of Attention , 1997 .

[4]  Jan Theeuwes,et al.  The size of an attentional window modulates attentional capture by color singletons , 2007, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[5]  Bradley S. Gibson,et al.  The identity intrusion effect: Attentional capture or perceptual load? , 2008 .

[6]  J Driver,et al.  A selective review of selective attention research from the past century. , 2001, British journal of psychology.

[7]  Dominique Lamy,et al.  Attentional capture in singleton-detection and feature-search modes. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[8]  J. Theeuwes.  Stimulus-driven capture and attentional set: selective search for color and visual abrupt onsets. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[9]  H E Egeth,et al.  Do reaction time and accuracy measure the same aspects of letter recognition? , 1982, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[10]  Bryan R. Burnham,et al.  Displaywide visual features associated with a search display’s appearance can mediate attentional capture , 2007, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[11]  J. C. Johnston,et al.  Involuntary covert orienting is contingent on attentional control settings. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[12]  S. Vecera,et al.  Perceptual load modulates attentional capture by abrupt onsets , 2009, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

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

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

[15]  B. Gibson,et al.  3 – Inattentional Blindness and Attentional Capture: Evidence for Attention-Based Theories of Visual Salience , 2001 .

[16]  Y. Tsal,et al.  Perceptual load as a major determinant of the locus of selection in visual attention , 1994, Perception & psychophysics.

[17]  William K. Estes,et al.  Interactions of signal and background variables in visual processing , 1972 .

[18]  Elizabeth L Bjork,et al.  On the nature of input channels in visual processing. , 1977, Psychological review.

[19]  N. Lavie,et al.  On the Efficiency of Visual Selective Attention: Efficient Visual Search Leads to Inefficient Distractor Rejection , 1997 .

[20]  H. Müller,et al.  Attentional capture by salient color singleton distractors is modulated by top-down dimensional set. , 2009, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[21]  Charles W. Eriksen,et al.  Target redundancy in visual search: Do repetitions of the target within thedisplay impair processing? , 1979 .

[22]  N. Lavie.  Perceptual load as a necessary condition for selective attention. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[23]  Jan Theeuwes,et al.  Attentional set interacts with perceptual load in visual search , 2004, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[24]  J. Theeuwes.  Perceptual selectivity for color and form , 1992, Perception & psychophysics.

[25]  Dominique Lamy,et al.  Intertrial target-feature changes do not lead to more distraction by singletons: Target uncertainty does , 2008, Vision Research.

[26]  Kenneth I Forster,et al.  DMDX: A Windows display program with millisecond accuracy , 2003, Behavior research methods, instruments, & computers : a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc.

[27]  A. H. C. van der Heijden,et al.  Selective Attention in Vision , 1991 .

[28]  L. Fournier,et al.  Is evidence for late selection due to automatic or attentional processing of stimulus identities? , 2001, Perception & psychophysics.

[29]  Stacy Eltiti,et al.  Selective target processing: Perceptual load or distractor salience? , 2005, Perception & psychophysics.

[30]  J. Theeuwes,et al.  Attentional control during visual search: the effect of irrelevant singletons. , 1998, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[31]  Jan Theeuwes,et al.  Target uncertainty does not lead to more distraction by singletons: Intertrial priming does , 2005, Perception & psychophysics.

[32]  Ana Torralbo,et al.  Perceptual-Load-Induced Selection as a Result of Local Competitive Interactions in Visual Cortex , 2008, Psychological science.

[33]  H. Egeth,et al.  Overriding stimulus-driven attentional capture , 1994, Perception & psychophysics.

[34]  Jeff Miller,et al.  Divided attention: Evidence for coactivation with redundant signals , 1982, Cognitive Psychology.

[35]  M. Masson,et al.  Using confidence intervals in within-subject designs , 1994, Psychonomic bulletin & review.