The role of reward prediction in the control of attention.

Abstract

Previously rewarded stimuli involuntarily capture attention. The learning mechanisms underlying this value-driven attentional capture remain less understood. We tested whether theories of prediction-based associative reward learning explain the conditions under which reward feedback leads to value-based modulations of attentional priority. Across four experiments, we manipulated whether stimulus features served as unique predictors of reward outcomes. Participants received monetary rewards for correctly identifying a color-defined target in an initial search task (training phase) and then immediately completed a second, unrewarded visual search task in which color was irrelevant (test phase). In Experiments 1–3, monetary reward followed correct target selection during training, but critically, no target-defining features carried uniquely predictive information about reward outcomes. Under these conditions, we found no evidence of attentional capture by the previous target colors in the subsequent test phase. Conversely, when target colors in the training phase of Experiment 4 carried uniquely predictive information about reward magnitude, we observed significant attentional capture by the previously rewarded color. Our findings show that value-based attentional priority only develops for stimulus features that carry uniquely predictive information about reward, ruling out a purely motivational account and suggesting that mechanisms of reward prediction play an important role in shaping attentional priorities.

Value-driven attentional capture is modulated by spatial context

“…This is consistent with the reward learning that automatically guides attention being implicit in nature, relying on the co-occurrence of visual information and reward feedback rather than the establishment of strategic priorities that persist due to reinforcement, as has been suggested previously and elsewhere (e.g., Anderson et al, 2013; Anderson & Yantis, 2013; Buckner et al, this issue; Della Libera, Perlato, & Chelazzi, 2011; Sali, Anderson, & Yantis, in press; Tran et al, this issue). However, it should be noted that the evidence provided by the forced-choice question is only suggestive of implicit learning and cannot rule out awareness of the reward contingencies that either extinguished over the course of the test phase or was not sufficiently strong that participants were willing to endorse the correct contingency over random contingencies.…”

Irrelevant learned reward associations disrupt voluntary spatial attention

“…Note that this control experiment does not control for the possibility that the effects observed in Experiment 1 are due to motivational salience effects generated by the receipt of rewards. However, Sali, Anderson, and Yantis (2014) demonstrated in multiple experiments using a similar paradigm that motivational salience does not account for value-driven capture. In order to test these hypotheses, we performed the same analyses as in Experiment 1, the only difference being that instead of high-and low-reward conditions we have red and blue conditions.…”

Eye-Tracking in the Study of Visual Expertise: Methodology and Approaches in Medicine

“…The learned value of visual stimuli significantly affects attentional priority (Laurent, Hall, Anderson, & Yantis, 2015;Sali, Anderson, & Yantis, 2014). In basic eye-tracking experiments involving manipulation of object low level properties, participants quickly learned to search for objects of a property that would produce a valuable reward (Laurent et al, 2015;Sali et al, 2014).…”