title: Involuntary transfer of a top-down attentional set into the focus of attention: evidence from a contingent attentional capture paradigm.
abstract: In the present study, we investigated whether involuntarily directing attention to a target-colored distractor causes the corresponding attentional set to enter a limited-capacity focus of attention, thereby facilitating the identification of a subsequent target whose color matches the same attentional set. As predicted, in Experiment 1, contingent attentional capture effects from a target-colored distractor were only one half to one third as large when subsequent target identification relied on the same (vs. a different) attentional set. In Experiment 2, this effect was eliminated when all of the target colors matched the same attentional set, arguing against bottom-up perceptual priming of the distractor's color as an alternative account of our findings. In Experiment 3, this effect was reversed when a target-colored distractor appeared after the target, ruling out a feature-based interference account of our findings. We conclude that capacity limitations in working memory strongly influence contingent attentional capture when multiple attentional sets guide selection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 1012 East Hall, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. mooreks@umich.edu
authors.forename: Katherine Sledge
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: Daniel H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Weissman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011601:Psychophysics; D012718:Set, Psychology; D014163:Transfer, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult