Abstract
Why do certain objects capture our attention? Some researchers propose that attention capture is largely the result of a match between stimulus features and our current goals (top-down view), while others maintain that capture is primarily determined by stimulus salience (bottom-up view). The present research focused on understanding the interrelationships between capture in four classic attention capture paradigms used to support top-down and bottom-up views of attention capture. Classic capture effects were replicated across all four paradigms, after which alternative models of attention capture were compared (attention capture as a unitary construct vs. top-down and bottom-up as separate latent factors). In general, tasks traditionally thought to tap top-down and bottom-up forms of capture did not relate in expected ways. Capture measured in each task may instead be related to specific task demands and strategies rather than broad categories of attentional control such as top-down and bottom-up. Exploratory factor analysis suggested that bottom-up capture by onsets and color singletons might represent distinct phenomena. In general, the correlations among capture scores derived from these paradigms, measures of capture reliability, and the distributions of capture scores revealed that there is still much to explore regarding attentional control even in these relatively simple laboratory paradigms.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2016