Citation

Ansorge U, Kiss M, Worschech F, Eimer M. Atten. Percept. Psychophys. 2011; 73(1): 113-122.

Affiliation

Faculty of Psychology, Universität Wien, Liebiggasse 5, 1010, Wien, Austria, ulrich.ansorge@univie.ac.at.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.3758/s13414-010-0008-3

PMID

21258913

Abstract

Salient visual singleton stimuli produce spatial cueing effects indicative of attentional capture only when they match current task sets, suggesting that capture is subject to top-down control. However, such task-set contingent capture effects could be associated with the top-down controlled disengagement of attention from non-matching stimuli that follows their initial bottom-up salience-driven selection. Using the N2pc component as an event-related potential marker of attentional capture, we demonstrate that top-down task set already controls the initial rapid selection of salient visual singleton stimuli prior to any subsequent attentional disengagement. These findings provide new evidence for the primacy of top-down control over bottom-up salience in attentional capture.

Language: en