Target-uncertainty effects in attentional capture: color-singleton set or multiple attentional control settings? Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Previous spatial cuing studies have shown that the capture of spatial attention is contingent on top-down attentional control settings whose specificity varies as a function of the certainty of the defining features of the target. For example, when the target is a singleton defined by one specific color, observers adopt a control setting for that color. When the target can be one of two possible colors, however, observers appear to adopt a control setting for color singletons in general (see, e.g., Folk & Remington, 2008). The present study tested whether such results instead reflect the simultaneous maintenance of control settings for multiple colors (Adamo, Pun, Pratt, & Ferber, 2008). Observers searched for targets that were unpredictably red or green, preceded by spatial cues that were red, green, or blue. All three cue types produced evidence of capture, consistent with a general set for color singletons rather than the maintenance of multiple control settings.

published proceedings

  • Psychon Bull Rev

author list (cited authors)

  • Folk, C. L., & Anderson, B. A.

citation count

  • 79

complete list of authors

  • Folk, Charles L||Anderson, Brian A

publication date

  • June 2010