title: Rewarded visual items capture attention only in heterogeneous contexts.
abstract: Reward is known to affect visual search performance. Rewarding targets can increase search performance, whereas rewarding distractors can decrease search performance. We used subcomponents of the N2pc in the event-related EEG, the NT (target negativity) and ND /PD (distractor negativity/positivity), in a visual search task to disentangle target and distractor processing related to reward. The visual search task comprised homogeneous and heterogeneous contexts in which a target and a colored distractor were embedded. After each correct trial, participants were given a monetary reward that depended on the color of the distractor. We found longer response times for displays with high-reward distractors compared to displays with low-reward distractors, indicating reward-induced interference, however, only for heterogeneous contexts. The NT component, indicative of attention deployment to the target, showed that target selection was impaired by high-reward distractors, regardless of the context homogeneity. Processing of distractors was not affected by reward in homogeneous contexts. In heterogeneous contexts, however, high-reward distractors were more likely to capture attention (ND ) and required more effort to be suppressed (PD ) than low-reward distractors. In sum the results showed that, despite the fact that target selection is impaired by high-reward distractors in both homogeneous and heterogeneous background contexts, high-reward distractors capture attention only in scenarios that foster attentional capture.
authors.affiliation: Experimental and Biological Psychology, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany.|Department of Psychology, Institute for Mind and Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Feldmann-Wüstefeld
authors.affiliation: Experimental and Biological Psychology, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Ruben
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brandhofer
authors.affiliation: Experimental and Biological Psychology, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schubö
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D012201:Reward; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attentional capture; N2pc; NT; PD; Reward; Visual attention