title: The role of unique color changes and singletons in attention capture.
abstract: Previous studies have shown that a sudden color change is typically less salient in capturing attention than the onset of a new object. Von Mühlenen, Rempel, and Enns (Psychological Science 16: 979-986, 2005) showed that a color change can capture attention as effectively as the onset of a new object given that it occurs during a period of temporal calm, where no other display changes happen. The current study presents a series of experiments that further investigate the conditions under which a change in color captures attention, by disentangling the change signal from the onset of a singleton. The results show that the item changing color receives attentional priority irrespective of whether this change goes along with the appearance of a singleton or not.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK. a.vonmuhlenen@warwick.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: von Mühlenen
authors.affiliation: Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Conci
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attentional capture; Reaction time methods; Visual search