title: Active suppression of salient-but-irrelevant stimuli does not underlie resistance to visual interference.
abstract: In visual search for a shape target, interference from salient-but-irrelevant color singletons can be resisted in feature search mode, but not in singleton detection mode. In singleton detection mode, we observed a contralateral positivity (PD) after 260-340ms, suggesting that the salient distractor was suppressed. Because RTs in singleton detection mode increased when a distractor was present, we conclude that active suppression of distractors takes time. In feature search mode, no increase in RTs and no PDto the distractor was observed, showing that resistance to interference was not accomplished by suppression. Rather, the smaller N2pc to the target in feature search than in singleton detection mode suggests that enhancement of target features avoided interference. Thus, the strong top-down set in feature search mode eliminated the need to suppress the early attend-to-me signal (corresponding to the Ppc, from 160 to 210ms) that was generated by salient stimuli independently of search mode.
authors.affiliation: Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, Université de Genève, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barras
authors.affiliation: Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, Université de Genève, Switzerland. Electronic address: dirk.kerzel@unige.ch.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kerzel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Attentional capture; Attentional selection; Feature search; N2pc; P(D); Ppc; Search mode; Singleton detection; Visual search