Attentional control settings and visual working memory (preprint)

In the present study, we examined whether visual working memory (VWM) can support attentional control settings (ACSs) by maintaining representations of the visual properties that should capture attention. Beyond enhancing capture by memory-matching stimuli, can VWM representations suppress capture by non-matching stimuli? In Experiments 1a/b, participants maintained a colour in VWM that changed every trial while completing a Posner cueing task with memory matching and memory non-matching colour cues. We replicated the conventional finding that the colour in VWM modulated distractor costs, indicating that the colour was represented in the active state. Yet, this colour had no effect on the capture of visual spatial attention measured via cueing effects, suggesting that merely remembering a colour in VWM did not define participants’ ACSs. When participants searched for the colour in VWM, it did support an ACS that eliminated cueing effects by non-matching colours (Experiment 2), though not if participants searched for two colours stored in VWM (Experiment 3). These findings demonstrate that one active representation in VWM can support ACSs, though active representation alone is insufficient. These findings also speak to the ongoing debate about the automaticity of attentional capture by contributing additional evidence that distractor costs and cueing effects are dissociable measures of attentional capture.

To look or not to look: Subliminal abrupt-onset cues influence constrained free-choice saccades

Subliminal cues have been shown to capture attention and modulate manual response behaviour but their impact on eye movement behaviour is not well-studied. In two experiments, we examined if subliminal cues influence constrained free-choice saccades and if this influence is under strategic control as a function of task-relevancy of the cues. On each trial, a display containing four filled circles at the centre of each quadrant was shown. A central coloured circle indicated the relevant visual field on each trial (Up or Down in Experiment 1; Left or Right in Experiment 2). Next, abrupt-onset cues were presented for 16 ms at one of the four locations. Participants were then asked to freely choose and make a saccade to one of the two target circles in the relevant visual field. The analysis of the frequency of saccades, saccade endpoint deviation and saccade latency revealed a significant influence of the relevant subliminal cues on saccadic decisions. Latency data showed reduced capture by spatially-irrelevant cues under some conditions. These results indicate that spatial attentional control settings as defined in our study could modulate the influence of subliminal abrupt-onset cues on eye movement behaviour. We situate the findings of this study in the attention-capture debate and discuss the implications for the subliminal cueing literature.

Taking stock: The role of environmental appraisal in the strategic use of attentional control

There are many strategies we can use to control attention when approaching a visual search task, but some are more effective than others. How do we choose the most optimal strategy? We have proposed that individuals must appraise the stimulus environment, taking in relevant statistical information about task-relevant features. In the present experiment, we examined whether interfering with the appraisal process via a secondary task decreases participants’ use of the optimal strategy. We used a modified version of the Adaptive Choice Visual Search paradigm (Irons & Leber, 2016; 2018), whereby individuals can freely search for either of two targets on every trial. Each search display was preceded by a colored environmental preview, offering participants time to appraise the display and determine which target would be more optimal to search for. On some blocks, participants also completed a secondary task – a central line-length judgment – either before or during this colored preview. We found that participants were significantly less likely to search optimally when the line task occurred during the colored preview than when it occurred beforehand or was absent. Insofar as the secondary task disrupts an individual’s ability to engage in appraisal, these results support the need for such an appraisal mechanism in the optimal choice of attentional control settings.