Entirely irrelevant distractors can capture and captivate attention |
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Authors: | Sophie Forster Nilli Lavie |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Psychology and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, Tolman Hall, Berkeley, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720-1650, USA;(2) Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, England, UK |
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Abstract: | The question of whether a stimulus onset may capture attention when it is entirely irrelevant to the task and even in the
absence of any attentional settings for abrupt onset or any dynamic changes has been highly controversial. In the present
study, we designed a novel irrelevant capture task to address this question. Participants engaged in a continuous task making
sequential forced choice (letter or digit) responses to each item in an alphanumeric matrix that remained on screen throughout
many responses. This task therefore involved no attentional settings for onset or indeed any dynamic changes, yet the brief
onset of an entirely irrelevant distractor (a cartoon picture) resulted in significant slowing of the two (Experiment 1) or three (Experiment 2) responses immediately following distractor appearance These findings provide a clear demonstration of attention being captured
and captivated by a distractor that is entirely irrelevant to any attentional settings of the task. |
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