Modulation of spatial attention by goals, statistical learning, and monetary reward

This study documented the relative strength of task goals, visual statistical learning, and monetary reward in guiding spatial attention. Using a difficult T-among-L search task, we cued spatial attention to one visual quadrant by (i) instructing people to prioritize it (goal-driven attention), (ii)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Attention, perception & psychophysics perception & psychophysics, 2015-10, Vol.77 (7), p.2189-2206
Main Authors: Jiang, Yuhong V., Sha, Li Z., Remington, Roger W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Attention
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Cues
Explicit knowledge
Goals
Human error
Humans
Incidental Learning
Male
Middle Aged
Paradigms
Persistence
Photic Stimulation
Probability
Probability Learning
Prompting
Psychology
Reaction Time
Repetition
Repetition Priming
Reward
Studies
Visual task performance
Young Adult
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Summary:This study documented the relative strength of task goals, visual statistical learning, and monetary reward in guiding spatial attention. Using a difficult T-among-L search task, we cued spatial attention to one visual quadrant by (i) instructing people to prioritize it (goal-driven attention), (ii) placing the target frequently there (location probability learning), or (iii) associating that quadrant with greater monetary gain (reward-based attention). Results showed that successful goal-driven attention exerted the strongest influence on search RT. Incidental location probability learning yielded a smaller though still robust effect. Incidental reward learning produced negligible guidance for spatial attention. The 95 % confidence intervals of the three effects were largely nonoverlapping. To understand these results, we simulated the role of location repetition priming in probability cuing and reward learning. Repetition priming underestimated the strength of location probability cuing, suggesting that probability cuing involved long-term statistical learning of how to shift attention. Repetition priming provided a reasonable account for the negligible effect of reward on spatial attention. We propose a multiple-systems view of spatial attention that includes task goals, search habit, and priming as primary drivers of top-down attention.
ISSN:1943-3921
1943-393X
DOI:10.3758/s13414-015-0952-z