Symbolic control of visual attention

The present study reports four pairs of experiments that examined the role of nonpredictive (i.e., task-irrelevant) symbolic stimuli on attentional or ienting. The experiments involved a simple detection task, art inhibition o f return (IOR) task, and choice decision tasks both with and without attent ional bias. Each pair of experiments included one experiment in which nonpr edictive arrows were presented at the central fixation location and another experiment in which nonpredictive direction words (e.g., "up," "down," "le ft," "right") were presented. The nonpredictive symbolic stimuli affected r esponses in all experiments, with the words producing greater effects in th e detection task and the arrows producing greater effects in the IOR and ch oice decision tasks. Overall, the present findings indicate that there is a strong connection between the overlearned representations of the meaning o f communicative symbols and the reflexive orienting of visual attention.