On the generality of the contingent orienting hypothesis.
The contingent-orienting hypothesis states that attentional capture by a task-irrelevant stimulus is contingent on whether that stimulus shares a feature property that is critical to the task at hand [Folk, C. L., Remington, R. W., & Johnston, J. C. (1992). Involuntary covert orienting is contingent on attentional control settings. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 18, 1030-1044]. Studies supporting this hypothesis have mostly used set size four displays throughout the experiment and thus constrict its ecological validity, since conclusions drawn from experiments using fixed set-size displays may not be generalized to other conditions with different set sizes. We used a spatial cueing paradigm in which a non-informative onset or color cue preceded an onset or a color target, and manipulated set size as a within- or between-subject factor. In four experiments, the original finding of Folk et al. (1992) was replicated only when a fixed set size (four) was used throughout. When both set-size four and eight were used in an experiment, stimulus-driven capture by onset in search of a color target was found even for set-size four displays. These results raise doubts as to the generality of the contingent-orienting hypothesis and help to delineate the boundary conditions on this hypothesis.
Yeh
Su-Ling
SL
National Taiwan University, Department of Psychology, No. 1 Sec. 4 Roosevelt Road, Taipei, Taiwan. suling@ntu.edu.tw
Liao
Hsin-I
HI
D001244:Association; D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012718:Set, Psychology