The adaptive character of the attentional system: statistical sensitivity in a target localization task.
A localization task required participants to indicate which of 4 locations contained a briefly displayed target. Most displays also contained a distractor that was not equally probable in these locations, affecting performance dramatically. Responses were faster when a display had no distractor and almost as fast when the distractor was in its frequent location. Conversely, responses were slower when targets appeared in frequent-distractor locations, even thou targets were equally likely in each location. Negative-priming effects were reliably smaller when targets followed distractors in the frequent-distractor location compared to the rare-distractor location, challenging the episodic-retrieval account Experiment 2 added a 5th location that rarely displayed distractors and never targets, yet responses slowed most when distractors appeared there. The results confirmed that the attentional system is sensitive to first- and higher-order statistical patterns and can make short- and long-term adjustments in preferences based on prior history of inspecting unsuccessful locations.
Reder
Lynne M
LM
Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA. reder@cmu.edu
Weber
Keith
K
Shang
Jen
J
Vanyukov
Polina M
PM
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D011930:Reaction Time; D013028:Space Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires