Attentional capture by masked colour singletons.
We tested under which conditions a colour singleton of which an observer is unaware captures attention. To prevent visual awareness of the colour singleton, we used backward masking. We find that a masked colour singleton cue captures attention if it matches the observer's goal to search for target colours but not if it is task-irrelevant. This is also reflected in event-related potentials to the visible target: the masked goal-matching cue elicits an attentional potential (N2pc) in a target search task. By contrast, a non-matching but equally strong masked colour singleton cue failed to elicit a capture effect and an N2pc. Results are discussed with regard to currently pertaining conceptions of attentional capture by colour singletons.
Ansorge
Ulrich
U
Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Austria; Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrueck, Germany. ulrich.ansorge@univie.ac.at
Horstmann
Gernot
G
Worschech
Franziska
F
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult