Abstract
Recent research with visual search tasks has suggested that stimuli which appear as sudden onsets (new objects) have attentional priority over stimuli that are created by removing segments of premasks (non-onset stimuli). Attentional capture by sudden onsets occurs despite the fact that the appearance of these new objects predicts neither the identity nor the location of the target in the visual search task. In three experiments, we examined the extent to which attentional capture by sudden onsets could be modulated by offset transients used to create non-onset objects. To that end, we systematically manipulated the ratio of non-onset to onset stimuli in the display (display ratio) as well as the ratio of offset to onset segments between the stimulus types (stimulus ratio). Increases in either the stimulus ratio or the display ratio resulted in increases in the visual search slopes for the onset targets. These results suggest that the ability of sudden onsets (new objects) to capture attention is influenced by stimulusdriven factors, such as environmental change. Interestingly, the results also indicated that goal-directed or purposeful search for sudden-onset (new-object) targets was relatively uninfluenced by the amount of change in the visual display. Therefore, it would appear that environmental change has differential effects on goal-directed and stimulus-driven search. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for our understanding of attentional capture.
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This research was supported by Grant N00014-92-J-1792 from the Office of Naval Research, Grant R01AG12203 from the National Institutes of Health, and Cooperative Agreement DAAL01-96-2-0003 with the Army Research Laboratory. Portions of this research were reported at the 1995 Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in San Diego.
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Martin-Emerson, R., Kramer, A.F. Offset transients modulate attentional capture by sudden onsets. Perception & Psychophysics 59, 739–751 (1997). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206020
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206020