%0 Journal Article
%T Evaluative pressure overcomes perceptual load effects
%J Psychonomic bulletin and review
%D 2014
%A Normand, Alice
%A Autin, Frédérique
%A Croizet, Jean-Claude
%V 22
%N 3
%P 737-742
%X Perceptual load has been found to be a powerful bottom-up determinant of distractibility, with high perceptual load preventing distraction by any irrelevant information. However, when under evaluative pressure, individuals exert top-down attentional control by giving greater weight to task-relevant features, making them more distractible from task-relevant distractors. One study tested whether the top-down modulation of attention under evaluative pressure overcomes the beneficial bottom-up effect of high perceptual load on distraction. Using a response-competition task, we replicated previous findings that high levels of perceptual load suppress task-relevant distractor response interference, but only for participants in a control condition. Participants under evaluative pressure (i.e., who believed their intelligence was assessed) showed interference from task-relevant distractor at all levels of perceptual load. This research challenges the assumptions of the perceptual load theory and sheds light on a neglected determinant of distractibility: the self-relevance of the performance situation in which attentional control is solicited.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
%G en
%I Psychonomic Society Publications
%@ 1069-9384
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-014-0729-8