title: First saccadic eye movement reveals persistent attentional guidance by implicit learning.
abstract: Implicit learning about where a visual search target is likely to appear often speeds up search. However, whether implicit learning guides spatial attention or affects postsearch decisional processes remains controversial. Using eye tracking, this study provides compelling evidence that implicit learning guides attention. In a training phase, participants often found the target in a high-frequency, "rich" quadrant of the display. When subsequently tested in a phase during which the target was randomly located, participants were twice as likely to direct the first saccadic eye movement to the previously rich quadrant than to any of the sparse quadrants. The attentional bias persisted for nearly 200 trials after training and was unabated by explicit instructions to distribute attention evenly. We propose that implicit learning guides spatial attention but in a qualitatively different manner than goal-driven attention.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota.
authors: Yuhong V
authors: YV
authors: Jiang
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota.
authors: Bo-Yeong
authors: BY
authors: Won
authors: Department of Psychology, Cornell University.
authors: Khena M
authors: KM
authors: Swallow
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011337:Probability Learning; D011930:Reaction Time; D012438:Saccades; D065853:Spatial Learning; D055815:Young Adult