STIMULUS-DRIVEN ATTENTIONAL CAPTURE IS CONTINGENT ON ATTENTIONAL SET FOR DISPLAYWIDE VISUAL FEATURES

This research showed that the current criterion for stimulus-driven at tentional capture is not sufficient to rule out goal-directed processe s that are critical for producing attentional capture. This was shown by demonstrating a contingency between displaywide visual features (i. e., features that signal the appearance of the task-relevant target di splay as a whole) and the features that capture attention. In Experime nt 1, the target display was signaled by both color and onset; in Expe riment 2, the target display was signaled only by onset. As expected, Experiment 1 showed that task-irrelevant color and onset distracters b oth captured attention, whereas Experiment 2 showed that only onset di stracters captured attention. These contingencies suggest that the str ongest evidence currently available for stimulus-driven attentional ca pture may be caused by goal-directed processes.