Generalization of value-based attentional priority. Academic Article

abstract

• Attention is the mechanism by which important or salient stimuli are selected for perceptual and cognitive processing. Which stimuli are attended has important implications for effective goal-directed behaviour, survival, and well-being. A growing body of evidence suggests that reward-predicting stimuli capture attention involuntarily. In previous studies, value-based attentional priority has been observed only when the formerly reward-related stimuli themselves were presented as targets or distractors. Here we show that stimulus-reward associations learned in one task generalize to different stimuli that share a defining feature (colour) in another task. Our results reveal a broad and flexible role for reward learning in modulating attentional priority.

authors

• Anderson, Brian

published proceedings

• Vis cogn

author list (cited authors)

• Anderson, B. A., Laurent, P. A., & Yantis, S.

citation count

• 96

complete list of authors

• Anderson, Brian A||Laurent, Patryk A||Yantis, Steven

publication date

• January 2012

publisher

• Taylor & Francis  Publisher

published in

• Visual Cognition  Journal

keywords

• Attentional Capture
• Incentive Salience
• Novelty
• Reward Learning
• Selective Attention

PubMed Central ID

• 24294102

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1080/13506285.2012.679711

start page

• 647

end page

• 658

volume

• 20

issue

• 6

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2012.679711