Object-based attention shifts are driven by target location, not object placement

Barnas, Adam; Greenberg, Adam S.

doi:10.31234/osf.io/c5d2p

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Yet in our study there is no invalid-same condition, and therefore spreading attention along the object or assigning higher priority to uncued locations within the cued object cannot account for the faster change in the pattern of PLR observed for the invalid-outside-object condition than invalid-inside-object condition. Additionally, it was suggested that OBA effects depend, at least partially, on whether the attentional shift crossed interhemispheric or intrahemispheric boundaries (e.g., Barnas & Greenberg, 2019). However, in the current study, both invalid conditions (inside-object and outside-object) required the crossing of the interhemispheric boundary, and therefore this crossing cannot explain the observed PLR differences between these conditions.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 63%

A Continuous Measure of Object-Based Attention Sheds New Light on Its Underlying Mechanisms

Luzardo¹,

Einhäuser²,

Yeshurun³

2022

Preprint

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Attention is largely guided by objects; when attending a location on an object, observers react faster to targets in other locations within the object than outside the object. While crucial to our understanding of attention, there is no consensus on the mechanisms underlying such object-based attention. We describe a continuous measure of object-based attention that relies on attentional modulations of the pupillary light response (PLR). This response-free measurement provided unequivocal support for one of the debated accounts – ‘attentional shifting’, which underscores the higher cost of shifting attention between objects than within an object. In each trial, a precue appeared inside or outside a black/white object. The target followed in the same location or in a different location. In two experiments (N=44), changes in the PLR matched the shifting account’s predictions, revealing slower attentional shifts when a disengagement was required (cue inside, target outside) than not required (cue outside, target inside).

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 63%

A Continuous Measure of Object-Based Attention Sheds New Light on Its Underlying Mechanisms

Luzardo¹,

Einhäuser²,

Yeshurun³

2022

Preprint

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“…These effects depended on the orientation of the rectangles, with horizontal rectangles showing the object-based effect and vertical rectangles showing the reversed effect. The impact of rectangle orientation has led some researchers to speculate (e.g., Barnas & Greenberg, 2019 ) that the presumed effects measured in the two-rectangles paradigm is the relative ease of moving attention across the horizontal and vertical meridians rather than an object-based attention effect per se.…”

Section: Is There An Object-based Attention Effect?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Excess success in articles on object-based attention

Francis

Thunell

2022

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Twenty-five years of research has explored the object-based attention effect using the two-rectangles paradigm and closely related paradigms. While reading this literature, we noticed statistical attributes that are sometimes related to questionable research practices, which can undermine the reported conclusions. To quantify these attributes, we applied the Test for Excess Success (TES) individually to 37 articles that investigate various properties of object-based attention and comprise four or more experiments. A TES analysis estimates the probability that a direct replication of the experiments in a given article with the same sample sizes would have the same success (or better) as the original article. If the probability is low, then readers should be skeptical about the conclusions that are based on those experimental results. We find that 19 of the 37 analyzed articles (51%) seem too good to be true in that they have a replication probability below 0.1. In a new large sample study, we do find evidence for the basic object-based attention effect in the two-rectangles paradigm, which this literature builds on. A power analysis using this data shows that commonly used sample sizes in studies that investigate properties of object-based attention with the two-rectangles paradigm are, in fact, much too small to reliably detect even the basic effect.

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“…It has been suggested that OBA effects depend, at least partially, on whether the attentional spreading crossed interhemispheric or intrahemispheric boundaries (e.g., Barnas & Greenberg, 2019). This might raise questions regarding the decision to use only vertical rectangles in the current study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Attention does not spread automatically along objects: Evidence from the pupillary light response.

Luzardo¹,

Einhäuser²,

Michl³

et al. 2023

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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Objects influence attention allocation; when a location within an object is cued, participants react faster to targets appearing in a different location within this object than on a different object. Despite consistent demonstrations of this object-based effect, there is no agreement regarding its underlying mechanisms. To test the most common hypothesis that attention spreads automatically along the cued object, we utilized a continuous, response-free measurement of attentional allocation that relies on the modulation of the pupillary light response. In Experiments 1 and 2, attentional spreading was not encouraged because the target appeared often (60%) at the cued location and considerably less often at other locations (20% within the same object and 20% on another object). In Experiment 3, spreading was encouraged because the target appeared equally often in one of the three possible locations within the cued object (cued end, middle, uncued end). In all experiments, we added gray-to-black and gray-to-white luminance gradients to the objects. By cueing the gray ends of the objects, we could track attention. If attention indeed spreads automatically along objects, then pupil size should be greater after the gray-to-dark object is cued because attention spreads toward darker areas of the object than when the gray-to-white object is cued, regardless of the target location probability. However, unequivocal evidence of attentional spreading was only found when spreading was encouraged. These findings do not support an automatic spreading of attention. Instead, they suggest that attentional spreading along the object is guided by cue-target contingencies. Public Significance StatementThis study used the pupillary light response to challenge the common assumption that object-based attention spreads automatically along the object's contours. Instead, our findings suggest that attentional spreading is guided by current goals.

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Object-based attention shifts are driven by target location, not object placement

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

A Continuous Measure of Object-Based Attention Sheds New Light on Its Underlying Mechanisms

A Continuous Measure of Object-Based Attention Sheds New Light on Its Underlying Mechanisms

Excess success in articles on object-based attention

Attention does not spread automatically along objects: Evidence from the pupillary light response.

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