Just like new: newly segregated old objects capture attention.
Subjects searched for target letters that were either contained in or segregated from a group of distracting letters and were either moving or stationary. Subjects were faster to identify targets that had recently become segregated from the group regardless of whether the segregation was accomplished by (1) the element itself moving away from the group or (2) the group moving away from the segregated element. The results show that attention can be captured by newly apparent objects that are produced by a new grouping of an existing scene.
Christ
Shawn E
SE
Washington University, St Louis, Missouri, USA. research@shawnchrist.com
Abrams
Richard A
RA
D001288:Attention; D006801:Humans; D011930:Reaction Time; D014796:Visual Perception