Abstract
It has been claimed that the detection of a feature singleton can be based on activity in a feature map that allows coarse coding that something unique is present in the visual field. In the present study, participants detected the presence or absence of a color singleton. Even though the letter form of the color singleton was task-irrelevant, we showed that repeating the letter form of the singleton resulted in repetition priming on the next trial. Such repetition priming was not found when a nonsingleton letter was repeated as the singleton. Since the letter form of the color singleton could only be picked up by focal attention, the repetition priming effect indicates that focal attention is allocated to the feature singleton even in the simplest present-absent feature detection tasks. We showed that this effect is equally strong in conditions of low and high perceptual load. These results are inconsistent with theories that it is possible to detect a feature singleton without directing some form of attention to its location.
Article PDF
References
Joseph, J. S., Chun, M. M., & Nakayama, K. (1997). Attentional requirements in a “preattentive” feature search task. Nature, 387, 805–807.
Lavie, N. (1995). Perceptual load as a necessary condition for selective attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 21, 451–468.
Luck, S. J., & Ford, M. A. (1998). On the role of selective attention in visual perception. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 95, 825–830.
Luck, S. J., Girelli, M., McDermott, M. T., & Ford, M. A. (1997). Bridging the gap between monkey neurophysiology and human perception: An ambiguity resolution theory of visual selective attention. Cognitive Psychology, 33, 64–87.
Luck, S. J., & Hillyard, S. A. (1994). Spatial filtering during visual search: Evidence from human electrophysiology. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 20, 1000–1014.
Müller, H. J., Reimann, B., & Krummenacher, J. (2003). Visual search for singleton feature targets across dimensions: Stimulusand expectancy-driven effects in dimensional weighting. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 29, 1021–1035.
Nothdurft, H.-C. (1999). Focal attention in visual search. Vision Research, 39, 2305–2310.
Raymond, J. E., Shapiro, K. L., & Arnell, K. M. (1992). Temporary suppression of visual processing in an RSVP task: An attentional blink? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 18, 849–860.
Theeuwes, J. (1992). Perceptual selectivity for color and form. Perception & Psychophysics, 51, 599–606.
Theeuwes, J., Kramer, A. F., & Atchley, P. (1999). Attentional effects on preattentive vision: Spatial precues affect the detection of simple features. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 25, 341–347.
Theeuwes, J., Kramer, A. F., & Belopolsky, A. V. (2004). Attentional set interacts with perceptual load in visual search. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 11, 697–702.
Theeuwes, J., Reimann, B., & Mortier, K. (2006). Visual search for featural singletons: No top-down modulation, only bottom-up priming. Visual Cognition, 14, 466–489.
Treisman, A. [M.] (1988). Features and objects: The fourteenth Bartlett Memorial Lecture. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 40A, 201–237.
Treisman, A. M., & Gelade, G. (1980). A feature-integration theory of attention. Cognitive Psychology, 12, 97–136.
Vogel, E. K., Luck, S. J., & Shapiro, K. L. (1998). Electrophysiological evidence for a postperceptual locus of suppression during the attentional blink. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 24, 1656–1674.
Wolfe, J. M. (1994). Guided Search 2.0: A revised model of visual search. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1, 202–238.
Yantis, S., & Johnston, J. C. (1990). On the locus of visual selection: Evidence from focused attention tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 16, 135–149.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was funded by a grant from the Human Frontier Science Program (HSFP-RGP39/2005) to J.T.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Theeuwes, J., Van der Burg, E. & Belopolsky, A. Detecting the presence of a singleton involves focal attention. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 15, 555–560 (2008). https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.15.3.555
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.15.3.555