Abstract
The abrupt appearance of a new object captures attention, even when the object is task irrelevant. These findings suggest that abrupt onsets capture attention in a stimulus-driven manner and are not susceptible to top-down influences on attentional control. However, previous studies examining the ability of abrupt onsets to capture attention have used search displays that lacked significant complexity. Because attention is a limited capacity mechanism, it is possible that increasing the complexity, or perceptual load, of the search arrays may modulate capture by abrupt onsets. We used a flanker task to examine the effect of perceptual load on attentional capture by abruptly appearing objects. Subjects searched for a target letter through low-load (set size=1) and high-load (set size=6) displays. On each trial, irrelevant flankers also appeared, one as an onset and the other as an offset. Onset flankers affected search in low-load but not high-load displays. This modulation of attentional capture was not caused by generalized slowing when subjects searched through high-load displays; search for a single perceptually degraded target slowed response times but did not affect attentional capture. These findings demonstrate that attentional capture by an abrupt onset is attenuated when people search through high-load scenes.
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This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (BCS 03-39171), awarded to S.P.V.
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Cosman, J.D., Vecera, S.P. Perceptual load modulates attentional capture by abrupt onsets. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 16, 404–410 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.2.404
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.2.404