title: Feature specificity in attentional capture by size and color.
abstract: Top-down guidance of visual attention has classically been thought to operate in a feature-specific manner. However, recent studies have shown that top-down visual attention can also be guided by information about target-nontarget feature relations (e.g., larger, redder, brighter). Here we recommend a minimal set of cues for differentiating between relational and feature-specific attentional guidance and examine contrasting predictions for the guidance of attention by size and color stimuli in a spatial cueing paradigm. In Experiment 1 we demonstrate that in search for size, when both feature-specific and relational strategies are available, participants adopt a relational search strategy. Experiment 2 shows that when feature-specific information is the only reliable information to guide attention to the target, participants are able to adopt a feature-specific set for size information. Finally, in Experiment 3 we extend our paradigm to differentiate between feature-specific and relational strategies in search for color. Together, these experiments help to clarify the conditions under which different attentional guidance strategies will be employed, and demonstrate a useful minimum cue requirement for differentiating between these two forms of top-down guidance. Implications for current theories of attention are discussed.
authors: School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia. anthony.harris1@uqconnect.edu.au
authors: Anthony M
authors: AM
authors: Harris
authors: Roger W
authors: RW
authors: Remington
authors: Stefanie I
authors: SI
authors: Becker
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: attentional capture; feature attention; feature-specific; relational; spatial cueing