Abrupt onsets capture attention independent of top-down control settings

Schreij, Daniël; Owens, Calebn; Theeuwes, Jan

doi:10.3758/pp.70.2.208

Cited by 151 publications

(181 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…The latency of this effect parallels reports of enhanced amplitudes in early category-specific VEP components from 120 to 200 ms in response to intact familiar objects (i.e faces, cars) relative to phase-scrambled versions of these images (Rossion and Caharel 2011;Rousselet et al 2008). Therefore, the presentation of a concrete IAPS image that contains at least one object can elicit an involuntary shift of attention (Schreij et al 2008;Schreij et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 59%

Attentional bias to affective faces and complex IAPS images in early visual cortex follows emotional cue extraction

2015

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Emotionally arousing stimuli are known to rapidly draw the brain's processing resources, even when they are task-irrelevant. The steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) response, a neural response to a flickering stimulus which effectively allows measurement of the processing resources devoted to that stimulus, has been used to examine this process of attentional shifting. Previous studies have used a task in which participants detected periods of coherent motion in flickering random dot kinematograms (RDKs) which generate an SSVEP, and found that task-irrelevant emotional stimuli rapidly withdraw attentional resources from the task-relevant RDKs. However, it is not clear whether the changes in the SSVEP response are conditional on higher-level extraction of emotional cues as indexed by well-known event-related potential (ERPs) components, or if affective bias in competition for visual attention resources could be a consequence of an inherent, relatively time-invariant shifting process. In the present study, we used two different types of emotional distractors -IAPS pictures and facial expressions -for which emotional cue extraction occurs at different speeds, being typically earlier for faces (at ~170 ms, as indexed by the N170) than for IAPS images (220-230 ms, Early Posterior Negativity, EPN). We found that attentional resources were withdrawn from the foreground task towards task-irrelevant emotional background images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) following the extraction of emotional cues as indexed by visual ERP components. We also found that emotional modulation of attentional resources as measured by the SSVEP occurred earlier for faces (around 180 ms) than for IAPS pictures (around 400 ms). This is consistent with lowlevel attentional resources being re-allocated after emotional cue extraction rather than being linked to a time-fixed shifting process.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 59%

Attentional bias to affective faces and complex IAPS images in early visual cortex follows emotional cue extraction

2015

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“…To conclude, it appears that the onset effects, as found in Schreij et al (2008), are very similar to contingent capture effects, in terms of their additivity with earlier capture effects. It seems that contingent capture is partly a sustained phenomenon whose lingering effects are not easily terminated by subsequent events.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…The costs inflicted by the red distractor in this experiment were generally of greater magnitude than were the costs inflicted by an onset distractor in Schreij et al (2008). Most likely, this is because the red distractor contained a task-relevant feature, which may have resulted in more trouble in disengaging attention from the distractor.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…We took the Schreij et al (2008) version of the Folk et al (1992) paradigm, but we left out the onset distractor and instead briefly made one of the other distractor boxes red. This red distractor was always invalid.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experiment 2 shows that a disrelevant object without itself invoking a shift of attention. Specifically, in the Schreij et al (2008) study, the onset would be competing with the target, thus causing filtering costs. The filtering explanation is compatible with the contingent capture hypothesis because attention goes only to the item that matches the attentional set for color; this explanation assumes that attention does not go to the location of the abrupt onset, which causes only a nonspecific filtering cost.…”

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confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Abrupt onsets capture attention independent of top-down control settings II: Additivity is no evidence for filtering

Schreij

Theeuwes

Olivers

2010

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics

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Stimulus‐driven capture and contingent capture

Theeuwes

Olivers

Belopolsky

2010

WIRES Cognitive Science

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Whether or not certain physical events can capture attention has been one of the most debated issues in the study of attention. This discussion is concerned with how goal-directed and stimulus-driven processes interact in perception and cognition. On one extreme of the spectrum is the idea that attention capture is primarily stimulus driven and automatic. On the other end is the notion that attention capture is always contingent on the goals of the observer, and thus under top-down control. This review discusses the empirical evidence for each of these viewpoints and the theoretical consequences. In addition, there is a discussion of the issues that remain controversial within the debate between the two viewpoints. It is concluded that visual selection depends on the interaction between bottom-up and top-down processes with a special role for spatial attention as the top-down gatekeeper for attention capture. WIREs Cogn Sci 2010 1 872-881 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

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Abrupt onsets capture attention independent of top-down control settings

Cited by 151 publications

References 62 publications

Attentional bias to affective faces and complex IAPS images in early visual cortex follows emotional cue extraction

Attentional bias to affective faces and complex IAPS images in early visual cortex follows emotional cue extraction

Abrupt onsets capture attention independent of top-down control settings II: Additivity is no evidence for filtering

Stimulus‐driven capture and contingent capture

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