Bs. Gibson, VISUAL QUALITY AND ATTENTIONAL CAPTURE - A CHALLENGE TO THE SPECIAL ROLE OF ABRUPT ONSETS, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 22(6), 1996, pp. 1496-1504
This article investigates the nature of stimulus-driven attentional ca
pture. Previous studies (e.g., J. Jonides & S. Yantis, 1988) have sugg
ested that only a single visual feature-abrupt visual onset-can elicit
stimulus-driven attentional capture. Two experiments are reported tha
t challenge the special status of abrupt onsets in attentional capture
. In particular, this evidence suggests that abrupt onsets appear to a
ttenuate display-size effects only in certain experimental contexts th
at inadvertently increase the ease with which they are perceived. Cons
equently, the special status attributed to abrupt onsets is argued to
derive from their higher visual quality.