Difficulty of discrimination modulates attentional capture for deviant information.
It has been reported that an increased difficulty of discrimination between standard and target enhances P3a for typical nontarget. To elucidate the mechanism of this effect on deviant processing, the P300 event-related brain potential (ERP) was elicited using a visual three-stimulus oddball paradigm (standard circle, .70, target circle, .15, and nontarget/target square, .15). Four task conditions were defined by a combination of two category types of rare square (nontarget or target) and two levels of discrimination difficulty between standard and target circles (easy or difficult). In the difficult conditions, P3a was elicited by both nontarget and target square. Our findings suggest that the difficulty of discrimination between standard and target enhances attentional capture, rather than inhibition, for deviant information. This study has implications for understanding the attentional mechanisms of deviant processing.
Sawaki
Risa
R
Graduate School of Education, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan. sawaki@edu.hokudai.ac.jp
Katayama
Jun'ichi
J
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D018913:Event-Related Potentials, P300 / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011337:Probability Learning; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D012858:Size Perception / Q000502:physiology