Publication
Uncertainty-modulated attentional capture: Outcome variance increases attentional priority
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Our prior experiences shape the way that we prioritize information from the environment for further
processing, analysis, and action. We show in three experiments that this process of attentional prioritization
is critically modulated by the degree of uncertainty in these previous experiences. Participants completed a
visual search task in which they made a saccade to a target to earn a monetary reward. The color of a colorsingleton distractor in the search array signaled the reward outcome(s) that were available, with different
degrees of variance (uncertainty). Participants were never required to look at the colored distractor, and
doing so would slow their response to the target. Nevertheless, across all experiments, participants were
more likely to look at distractors associated with high outcome variance versus low outcome variance.
This pattern was observed when all distractors had equal expected value (Experiment 1), when the difference
in variance was opposed by a difference in expected value (i.e., the high-variance distractor had a low
expected value, and vice versa: Experiment 2), and when high- and low-variance distractors were paired
with the maximum-value outcome on an equal proportion of trials (Experiment 3). Our findings demonstrate
that experience of prediction error plays a fundamental role in guiding “attentional exploration,” wherein
priority is driven by the potential for a stimulus to reduce future uncertainty through a process of learning,
as opposed to maximizing current information gain.
Description
Keywords
Attention Information seeking Reward Uncertaint
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Pearson, D., Chong, A., Chow, J. Y. L., Garner, K. G., Theeuwes, J., & Le Pelley, M. E. (2024). Uncertainty-Modulated Attentional Capture: Outcome Variance Increases Attentional Priority. Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, 153(6), 1628–1643. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001586
Publisher
American Psychological Association