title: Context-dependent control over attentional capture.
abstract: A number of studies have demonstrated that the likelihood of a salient item capturing attention is dependent on the "attentional set" an individual employs in a given situation. The instantiation of an attentional set is often viewed as a strategic, voluntary process, relying on working memory systems that represent immediate task priorities. However, influential theories of attention and automaticity propose that goal-directed control can operate more or less automatically on the basis of longer term task representations, a notion supported by a number of recent studies. Here, we provide evidence that longer term contextual learning can rapidly and automatically influence the instantiation of a given attentional set. Observers learned associations between specific attentional sets and specific task-irrelevant background scenes during a training session, and in the ensuing test session, simply reinstating particular scenes on a trial-by-trial basis biased observers to employ the associated attentional set. This directly influenced the magnitude of attentional capture, suggesting that memory for the context in which a task is performed can play an important role in the ability to instantiate a particular attentional set and overcome distraction by salient, task-irrelevant information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN 37240-7817, USA. joshua.d.cosman@vanderbilt.edu
authors.forename: Joshua D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Cosman
authors.forename: Shaun P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Vecera
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult