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Journal Article

Citation

Cosman JD, Vecera SP. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 2013; 39(3): 836-848.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/a0030027

PMID

23025581

Abstract

A number of studies have demonstrated that the likelihood of a salient item capturing attention is dependent on the "attentional set" an individual employs in a given situation. The instantiation of an attentional set is often viewed as a strategic, voluntary process, relying on working memory systems that represent immediate task priorities. However, influential theories of attention and automaticity propose that goal-directed control can operate more or less automatically on the basis of longer term task representations, a notion supported by a number of recent studies. Here, we provide evidence that longer term contextual learning can rapidly and automatically influence the instantiation of a given attentional set. Observers learned associations between specific attentional sets and specific task-irrelevant background scenes during a training session, and in the ensuing test session, simply reinstating particular scenes on a trial-by-trial basis biased observers to employ the associated attentional set. This directly influenced the magnitude of attentional capture, suggesting that memory for the context in which a task is performed can play an important role in the ability to instantiate a particular attentional set and overcome distraction by salient, task-irrelevant information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).


Keywords: Driver distraction;


Language: en

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