When something old becomes something new: Spatiotemporal object continuity and attentional capture.

Abstract

This article examines the possibility that the visal system treats dynamic cues a instances of new perceptual objects undersome circumstances. Using the contingent capture paradigm (C. L. Folk, R. W. Remington, & J. C. Johnston, 1992), the author compared luminance change cues of different magnitude for their ability to capture attention when participants were set for new objects. Wheras small luminance changes failed to produce attentional capture, large luminance changs indeed captured attention, suggesting that they were treated as compatible with the participants' attentional set for new objects. It is argued that sufficiently large luminance transients led to a disurption of spatiotemporal object continuity and precipitated the emergence of a new perceptual object.

Attentional capture by auto- and allo-cues

“…If the luminance change in the experiment described earlier caused a disruption of the spatiotemporal continuity of the change cue, a change of equal magnitude should disrupt the spatiotemporal continuity of the central dot in the Ternus display as well, giving rise to a greater probability of observing group motion. This is precisely the result that Rauschenberger (2003) obtained.…”

“…Rather, this circumstance makes the contingent capture paradigm a potentially fecund source of studies not directly related to attentional capture. In a study by Rauschenberger (2003), for example, the contingent capture paradigm was used to study the ontology of objects undergoing a change in luminance. (This study is discussed in detail below.…”

“…Franconeri and Simons's (2003) experiments using motion, however, are suggestive. New objects may represent only a special case of behaviorally urgent events (such as looming objects; , 2003; see also note 17) that capture attention because of their need for immediate attention.…”

“…The participants were set to search for the new object, which was always the target. Rauschenberger (2003) found that onset cues captured attention at both the smallest and the largest luminance contrasts. The luminance change cues, by contrast, produced an effect only at the largest luminance change magnitude, and not with any smaller luminance changes.…”

“…In a recent study, Rauschenberger (2003) examined the possibility more directly that changes to existing objects may (under some conditions) be treated as constituting the emergence of a new object. In this study, new object targets were paired with a variety of uninformative cues.…”