Abstract
When two targets are inserted in the RSVP stream, accuracy is nearly perfect for detecting the first target but is reduced for the second (attentional blink; AB). Recent studies have reported that even if only one target (e.g., a red-colored letter or a word meaning ‘fruit’) is inserted in the RSVP stream, AB occurs due to a preceding critical distractor whose feature is similar to that defining the target, perceptually (e.g., a red-colored digit) or semantically (e.g., a word meaning ‘vegetable’). That is, the target-like distractor operates as the first target and contingently captures observers' attention, which would elicit AB. Focusing on the occurrence of AB, this study examined what contingently captures observers' attention when observers are waiting for appearance of only one target in the RSVP stream. This approach would reveal characteristics of observers' attentional set to process the target. In our experiment, only one target was defined perceptually (e.g., a red-colored word), which was preceded by a critical distractor that never possessed the same color as the target but induced the semantic activation of the same color (e.g., a word meaning ‘red’). Even in this condition, the target was often missed, i.e. AB occurred. Therefore, attentional set to process the target-defining color would not be restricted only to the corresponding perceptual feature. Instead, it could be wide-open for other tempting events, which would be related to the critical distractor word meaning the target-defining color in this study.