The size of an attentional window modulates attentional capture by color singletons.
Researchers have proposed that during visual search, a color singleton cannot capture attention in a bottom-up fashion (Jonides & Yantis, 1988). In the present study, we manipulated the size of the attentional window by asking participants to detect either a global (diffuse attention) or a local (focused attention) shape before starting the search for a nonsingleton target. We demonstrate that increasing the size of attentional window causes the observers to frequently orient to an irrelevant color singleton. We conclude that although the size of attentional window might be under a top-down control, within the attentional window, an irrelevant salient singleton can capture attention in a bottom-up fashion.
Belopolsky
Artem V
AV
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. a.belopolsky@psy.vu.nl
Zwaan
Laura
L
Theeuwes
Jan
J
Kramer
Arthur F
AF
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D006801:Humans; D011930:Reaction Time