Abstract
We combined event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and behavioral measures to test whether subliminal visual stimuli can capture attention in a goal-dependent manner. Participants searched for visual targets defined by a specific color. Search displays served as metacontrast masks for preceding cue displays that contained one cue in the target color. Although this target-color cue was spatially uninformative, it produced behavioral spatial cuing effects and triggered an ERP correlate of attentional selection (i.e., the N2pc component). These results demonstrate that target-color cues captured attention, in spite of the fact that cue localization performance assessed in separate blocks was at chance level. We conclude that task-set contingent attentional capture is not restricted to supraliminal stimuli, but is also elicited by visual events that are not consciously perceived.
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The present study was supported by GRC Grants AN 393/2-1 and AN 393/5-1 (Germany) and by a BBSRC Grant (U.K.). M.E. holds a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award. The authors thank Franziska Worschech for technical assistance.
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Ansorge, U., Kiss, M. & Eimer, M. Goal-driven attentional capture by invisible colors: Evidence from event-related potentials. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 16, 648–653 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.4.648
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.4.648