ABSTRACT
When participants search for a shape (e.g., a circle) among a set of homogenous shapes (e.g., triangles) they are subject to distraction by colour singletons that are more salient than the target. However, when participants search for a shape among heterogeneous shapes, the presence of a non-target colour singleton does not slow responses to the target. Attempts have been made to explain these results from both bottom-up and top-down perspectives. What both accounts have in common is that they do not predict the occurrence of attentional capture on typical feature search displays. Here, we present a case where manipulating selection history, rather than the displays themselves, leads to attentional capture on feature search trials. The ability to map specific colours to the target and distractor appears to be what enables resistance to capture during feature search.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 We use “majority” colour to refer to the colour of the items in the display that are not a colour singleton. For example, in the lower (colour-swapping) panel of , on the second trial the majority colour is green and on the third trial the majority colour is red. Note that the target is always in the majority colour. Indeed, we could even replace the term majority colour with “target” colour.