Target-nontarget similarity modulates stimulus-driven control in visual search

Proulx, Michael J. and Egeth, Howard E. (2006) Target-nontarget similarity modulates stimulus-driven control in visual search. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 13 (3). pp. 524-529.

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Official URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/psocpubs/pbr/2006/00000013/00000003/art00024

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Abstract

The literature contains conflicting results concerning whether an irrelevant featural singleton (an item unique with respect to a feature such as color or brightness) can control attention in a stimulus-driven manner. The present study explores whether target–nontarget similarity influences stimulus-driven shifts of attention to a distractor. An experiment evaluated whether manipulating target–nontarget similarity by varying orientation would modulate distraction by an irrelevant feature (a bright singleton). We found that increasing target–nontarget similarity resulted in a decreased impact of a uniquely bright object on visual search. This method of manipulating the target–nontarget similarity independent of the salience of a distracting feature suggests that the extent to which visual attention is stimulus-driven depends on the target–nontarget similarity.

Comments/Discussion

Attention is a crucial aspect of cognition that is necessary to understand consciousness. Although previous work on attentional capture has explored which types of features or events capture attention, fewer researchers have examined the conditions under which singletons can capture attention. This study found that observers appear to be relying on bottom-up information to the extent that it is useful; that is, when the target has higher contrast in the relevant dimension (here, orientation), then the observers were more likely to rely on the bottom-up guidance of attention. However, when the target had lower orientation contrast, observers were less likely to rely on bottom-up guidance.

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