Abstract
There is considerable controversy about whether salient singletons capture attention in a bottom-up fashion, irrespective of top-down control settings. One possibility is that salient singletons always generate an attention capture signal, but this signal can be actively suppressed to avoid capture. In the present study, we investigated this issue by using event-related potential recordings, focusing on N2pc (N2-posterior-contralateral; a measure of attentional deployment) and Pd (distractor positivity; a measure of attentional suppression). Participants searched for a specific letter within one of two regions, and irrelevant color singletons were sometimes present. We found that the irrelevant singletons did not elicit N2pc but instead elicited Pd; this occurred equally within the attended and unattended regions. These findings suggest that salient singletons may automatically produce an attend-to-me signal, irrespective of top-down control settings, but this signal can be overridden by an active suppression process to prevent the actual capture of attention.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Reference
American Electroencephalographic Society (1994). Guidelines for standard electrode position nomenclature. Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology, 11, 111–113.
Bacon, W. F., & Egeth, H. E. (1994). Overriding stimulus-driven attentional capture. Perception & Psychophysics, 55, 485–496.
Barrett, L. F., Tugade, M. M., & Engle, R. W. (2004). Individual differences in working memory capacity and dual-process theories of the mind. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 553–573.
Belopolsky, A. V., Zwaan, L., Theeuwes, J., & Kramer, A. F. (2007). The size of an attentional window modulates attentional capture by color singletons. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14, 934–938.
Corbetta, M., & Shulman, G. L. (2002). Control of goal-directed and stimulus-driven attention in the brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 3, 201–215.
Cosman, J. D., & Vecera, S. P. (2009). Perceptual load modulates attentional capture by abrupt onsets. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 404–410.
Delorme, A., & Makeig, S. (2004). EEGLAB: An open source toolbox for analysis of single-trial EEG dynamics including independent component analysis. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 134, 9–21.
Desimone, R., & Duncan, J. (1995). Neural mechanisms of selective visual attention. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 18, 193–222.
Desimone, R., & Schein, S. J. (1987). Visual properties of neurons in area V4 of the macaque: Sensitivity to stimulus form. Journal of Neurophysiology, 57, 835–868.
Egeth, H. E., & Yantis, S. (1997). Visual attention: Control, representation, and time course. Annual Review of Psychology, 48, 269–297.
Eimer, M. (1996). The N2pc component as an indicator of attentional selectivity. Electroencephalography & Clinical Neurophysiology, 99, 225–234.
Eimer, M., & Kiss, M. (2008). Involuntary attentional capture is determined by task set: Evidence from event-related brain potentials. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20, 1423–1433.
Eimer, M., Kiss, M., Press, C., & Sauter, D. (2009). The roles of feature-specific task set and bottom-up salience in attentional capture: An ERP study. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 35, 1316–1328.
Folk, C. L., Leber, A. B., & Egeth, H. E. (2002). Made you blink! Contingent attentional capture produces a spatial blink. Perception & Psychophysics, 64, 741–753.
Folk, C. L., & Remington, R. [W.] (1998). Selectivity in distraction by irrelevant featural singletons: Evidence for two forms of attentional capture. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 24, 847–858.
Folk, C. L., & Remington, R. [W.] (1999). Can new objects override attentional control settings? Perception & Psychophysics, 61, 727–739.
Folk, C. L., Remington, R. W., & Johnston, J. C. (1992). Involuntary covert orienting is contingent on attentional control settings. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 18, 1030–1044.
Folk, C. L., Remington, R. W., & Wright, J. H. (1994). The structure of attentional control: Contingent attentional capture by apparent motion, abrupt onset, and color. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 20, 317–329.
Found, A., & Müller, H. J. (1996). Searching for unknown feature targets on more than one dimension: Investigating a “dimensionweighting” account. Perception & Psychophysics, 58, 88–101.
Fukuda, K., & Vogel, E. K. (2009). Human variation in overriding attentional capture. Journal of Neuroscience, 29, 8726–8733.
Geyer, T., Müller, H. J., & Krummenacher, J. (2008). Expectancies modulate attentional capture by salient color singletons. Vision Research, 48, 1315–1326.
Heinze, H. J., & Mangun, G. R. (1995). Electrophysiological signs of sustained and transient attention to spatial locations. Neuropsychologia, 33, 889–908.
Hickey, C., Di Lollo, V., & McDonald, J. J. (2009). Electrophysiological indices of target and distractor processing in visual search. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21, 760–775.
Hickey, C., McDonald, J. J., & Theeuwes, J. (2006). Electrophysiological evidence of the capture of visual attention. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18, 604–613.
Hilimire, M. R., Mounts, J. R., Parks, N. A., & Corballis, P. M. (2009). Competitive interaction degrades target selection: An ERP study. Psychophysiology, 46, 1080–1089.
Hopf, J. M., Boelmans, K., Schoenfeld, M. A., Luck, S. J., & Heinze, H. J. (2004). Attention to features precedes attention to locations in visual search: Evidence from electromagnetic brain responses in humans. Journal of Neuroscience, 24, 1822–1832.
Hopf, J. M., Luck, S. J., Girelli, M., Hagner, T., Mangun, G. R., Scheich, H., & Heinze, H. J. (2000). Neural sources of focused attention in visual search. Cerebral Cortex, 10, 1233–1241.
Johannes, S., Münte, T. F., Heinze, H. J., & Mangun, G. R. (1995). Luminance and spatial attention effects on early visual processing. Cognitive Brain Research, 2, 189–205.
Kastner, S., & Ungerleider, L. G. (2000). Mechanisms of visual attention in the human cortex. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 23, 315–341.
Kiss, M., Jolicoeur, P., Dell’Acqua, R., & Eimer, M. (2008). Attentional capture by visual singletons is mediated by top-down task set: New evidence from the N2pc component. Psychophysiology, 45, 1013–1024.
Knierim, J. J., & Van Essen, D. C. (1992). Neuronal responses to static texture patterns in area V1 of the alert macaque monkey. Journal of Neurophysiology, 67, 961–980.
Lamy, D., & Egeth, H. E. (2003). Attentional capture in singletondetection and feature-search modes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 29, 1003–1020.
Lamy, D., Leber, A., & Egeth, H. E. (2004). Effects of task relevance and stimulus-driven salience in feature-search mode. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 30, 1019–1031.
Lavie, N. (1995). Perceptual load as a necessary condition for selective attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 21, 451–468.
Lavie, N. (2005). Distracted and confused? Selective attention under load. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 75–82.
Lavie, N., & de Fockert, J. (2005). The role of working memory in attentional capture. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12, 669–674.
Lavie, N., Hirst, A., de Fockert, J. W., & Viding, E. (2004). Load theory of selective attention and cognitive control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 339–354.
Lavie, N., & Tsal, Y. (1994). Perceptual load as a major determinant of the locus of selection in visual attention. Perception & Psychophysics, 56, 183–197.
Leber, A. B., & Egeth, H. E. (2006). It’s under control: Top-down search strategies can override attentional capture. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 13, 132–138.
Leblanc, E., Prime, D. J., & Jolicoeur, P. (2008). Tracking the location of visuospatial attention in a contingent capture paradigm. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20, 657–671.
Lien, M. C., Ruthruff, E., Goodin, Z., & Remington, R. W. (2008). Contingent attentional capture by top-down control settings: Converging evidence from event-related potentials. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 34, 509–530.
Lins, O. G., Picton, T. W., Berg, P., & Scherg, M. (1993). Ocular artifacts in EEG and event-related potentials. I: Scalp topography. Brain Topography, 6, 51–63.
Lu, S., & Han, S. (2009). Attentional capture is contingent on the interaction between task demand and stimulus salience. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 71, 1015–1026.
Luck, S. J. (1995). Multiple mechanisms of visual-spatial attention: Recent evidence from human electrophysiology. Behavioural Brain Research, 71, 113–123.
Luck, S. J., Fan, S., & Hillyard, S. A. (1993). Attention-related modulation of sensory-evoked brain activity in a visual search task. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 5, 188–195.
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., Fuller, R. L., Braun, E. L., Robinson, B., Summerfelt, A., & Gold, J. M. (2006). The speed of visual attention in schizophrenia: Electrophysiological and behavioral evidence. Schizophrenia Research, 85, 174–195.
Luck, S. J., Girelli, M., McDermot, 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. (1994a). Electrophysiological correlates of feature analysis during visual search. Psychophysiology, 31, 291–308.
Luck, S. J., & Hillyard, S. A. (1994b). Spatial filtering during visual search: Evidence from human electrophysiology. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 20, 1000–1014.
Luck, S. J., Hillyard, S. A., Mouloua, M., Woldorff, M. G., Clark, V. P., & Hawkins, H. L. (1994). Effects of spatial cuing on luminance detectability: Psychophysical and electrophysiological evidence for early selection. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 20, 887–904.
Mangun, G. R., & Hillyard, S. A. (1988). Spatial gradients of visual attention: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence. Electroencephalography & Clinical Neurophysiology, 70, 417–428.
Mazza, V., Turatto, M., & Caramazza, A. (2009). An electrophysiological assessment of distractor suppression in visual search tasks. Psychophysiology, 46, 771–775.
Mazza, V., Turatto, M., Umiltà, C., & Eimer, M. (2007). Attentional selection and identification of visual objects are reflected by distinct electrophysiological responses. Experimental Brain Research, 181, 531–536.
Müller, H. J., Heller, D., & Ziegler, J. (1995). Visual search for singleton feature targets within and across feature dimensions. Perception & Psychophysics, 57, 1–17.
Munneke, J., Van der Stigchel, S., & Theeuwes, J. (2008). Cueing the location of a distractor: An inhibitory mechanism of spatial attention? Acta Psychologica, 129, 101–107.
Rodríguez Holguín, S., Doallo, S., Vizoso, C., & Cadaveira, F. (2009). N2pc and attentional capture by colour and orientationsingletons in pure and mixed visual search tasks. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 73, 279–286.
Ruff, C. C., & Driver, J. (2006). Attentional preparation for a lateralized visual distractor: Behavioral and fMRI evidence. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18, 522–538.
Sawaki, R., & Katayama, J. (2008). Top-down directed attention to stimulus features and attentional allocation to bottom-up deviations. Journal of Vision, 8(15, Art. 4), 1–8.
Sawaki, R., & Katayama, J. (2009). Difficulty of discrimination modulates attentional capture by regulating attentional focus. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21, 359–371.
Schubö, A., & Müller, H. J. (2009). Selecting and ignoring salient objects within and across dimensions in visual search. Brain Research, 1283, 84–101.
Seiss, E., Kiss, M., & Eimer, M. (2009). Does focused endogenous attention prevent attentional capture in pop-out visual search? Psychophysiology, 46, 703–717.
Slotnick, S. D., Schwarzbach, J., & Yantis, S. (2003). Attentional inhibition of visual processing in human striate and extrastriate cortex. NeuroImage, 19, 1602–1611.
Theeuwes, J. (1991a). Cross-dimensional perceptual selectivity. Perception & Psychophysics, 50, 184–193.
Theeuwes, J. (1991b). Exogenous and endogenous control of attention: The effect of visual onsets and offsets. Perception & Psychophysics, 49, 83–90.
Theeuwes, J. (1992). Perceptual selectivity for color and form. Perception & Psychophysics, 51, 599–606.
Theeuwes, J. (1994). Stimulus-driven capture and attentional set: Selective search for color and visual abrupt onsets. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 20, 799–806.
Theeuwes, J. (2004). Top-down search strategies cannot override attentional capture. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 11, 65–70.
Theeuwes, J., Atchley, P., & Kramer, A. F. (2000). On the time course of top-down and bottom-up control of visual attention. In S. Monsell & J. Driver (Eds.), Control of cognitive processes: Attention and performance XVIII (pp. 105–124). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Theeuwes, J., & Burger, R. (1998). Attentional control during visual search: The effect of irrelevant singletons. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 24, 1342–1353.
Theeuwes, J., Kramer, A. F., & Atchley, P. (2001). Spatial attention in early vision. Acta Psychologica, 108, 1–20.
Vecera, S. P., & Luck, S. J. (2002). Attention. In V. S. Ramachandran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the human brain (pp. 269–284). San Diego: Academic Press.
Vogel, E. K., McCollough, A. W., & Machizawa, M. G. (2005). Neural measures reveal individual differences in controlling access to working memory. Nature, 438, 500–503.
Woodman, G. F., & Luck, S. J. (1999). Electrophysiological measurement of rapid shifts of attention during visual search. Nature, 400, 867–869.
Woodman, G. F., & Luck, S. J. (2003). Serial deployment of attention during visual search. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 29, 121–138.
Yantis, S., & Egeth, H. E. (1999). On the distinction between visual salience and stimulus-driven attentional capture. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 25, 661–676.
Yantis, S., & Jonides, J. (1990). Abrupt visual onsets and selective attention: Voluntary versus automatic allocation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 16, 121–134.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This study was supported by Grants R01 MH076226 and R01 MH65034 from the National Institute of Mental Health and by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sawaki, R., Luck, S.J. Capture versus suppression of attention by salient singletons: Electrophysiological evidence for an automatic attend-to-me signal. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 72, 1455–1470 (2010). https://doi.org/10.3758/APP.72.6.1455
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/APP.72.6.1455