title: Fixation not required: characterizing oculomotor attention capture for looming stimuli.
abstract: A stimulus moving toward us, such as a ball being thrown in our direction or a vehicle braking suddenly in front of ours, often represents a stimulus that requires a rapid response. Using a visual search task in which target and distractor items were systematically associated with a looming object, we explored whether this sort of looming motion captures attention, the nature of such capture using eye movement measures (overt/covert), and the extent to which such capture effects are more closely tied to motion onset or the motion itself. We replicated previous findings indicating that looming motion induces response time benefits and costs during visual search Lin, Franconeri, & Enns(Psychological Science 19(7): 686-693, 2008). These differences in response times were independent of fixation, indicating that these capture effects did not necessitate overt attentional shifts to a looming object for search benefits or costs to occur. Interestingly, we found no differences in capture benefits and costs associated with differences in looming motion type. Combined, our results suggest that capture effects associated with looming motion are more likely subserved by covert attentional mechanisms rather than overt mechanisms, and attention capture for looming motion is likely related to motion itself rather than the onset of motion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, 4111 Pictor Lane, Psychology Bldg 99 Ste. 320, Orlando, FL, 32816-1390, USA.
authors.forename: Joanna E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, 4111 Pictor Lane, Psychology Bldg 99 Ste. 320, Orlando, FL, 32816-1390, USA. mark.neider@ucf.edu.
authors.forename: Mark B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Neider
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attentional capture; Eye movements and visual attention; Motion