Behavioral goals constrain the selection of visual information

Although there is agreement that attentional processes are limited, the nec essary conditions for such limitation have not been determined. We investig ated whether behavioral goals are sufficient to constrain the selection of visual information. In two tasks, subjects were presented with targets and distractors that varied on two dimensions (e.g., color and letter). In sepa rate conditions, the subjects' goal was to identify only one dimension of t he target while ignoring the second dimension and ignoring the distractors. In both tasks, peripheral distractors interfered with target selection onl y when the targets and distractors differed on the goal-relevant dimension. When the goal was changed, the pattern of interference from the same stimu li was reversed, so that distractors affected target selection only accordi ng to the new goal. These results suggest that behavioral goals constrain t he selection of visual information to a greater extent than the physical ch aracteristics of the visual information.