title: Exogenous attentional capture by subliminal abrupt-onset cues: evidence from contrast-polarity independent cueing effects.
abstract: In the present study, we tested whether subliminal abrupt-onset cues capture attention in a bottom-up or top-down controlled manner. For our tests, we varied the searched-for target-contrast polarity (i.e., dark or light targets against a gray background) over four experiments. In line with the bottom-up hypothesis, our results indicate that subliminal-onset cues capture attention independently of the searched-for target-contrast polarity (Experiment 1), and this effect is not stronger for targets that matched the searched-for target-contrast polarity (Experiment 2). In fact, even to-be-ignored cues associated with a no-go response captured attention in a salience-driven way (Experiment 3). For supraliminal cues, we found attentional capture only by cues with a matching contrast polarity, reflecting contingent capture (Experiment 4). The results point toward a specific role of subliminal abrupt onsets for attentional capture.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, A-1010 Vienna, Austria. isabella.fuchs@univie.ac.at
authors.forename: Isabella
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fuchs
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Theeuwes
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ansorge
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013360:Subliminal Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult