TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2013//
TI  - Context-dependent control over attentional capture
JO  - Journal of experimental psychology: human perception and performance
A1  - Cosman, Joshua D.
A1  - Vecera, Shaun P.
SP  - 836
EP  - 848
VL  - 39
IS  - 3
N2  - A number of studies have demonstrated that the likelihood of a salient item capturing attention is dependent on the "attentional set" an individual employs in a given situation. The instantiation of an attentional set is often viewed as a strategic, voluntary process, relying on working memory systems that represent immediate task priorities. However, influential theories of attention and automaticity propose that goal-directed control can operate more or less automatically on the basis of longer term task representations, a notion supported by a number of recent studies. Here, we provide evidence that longer term contextual learning can rapidly and automatically influence the instantiation of a given attentional set. Observers learned associations between specific attentional sets and specific task-irrelevant background scenes during a training session, and in the ensuing test session, simply reinstating particular scenes on a trial-by-trial basis biased observers to employ the associated attentional set. This directly influenced the magnitude of attentional capture, suggesting that memory for the context in which a task is performed can play an important role in the ability to instantiate a particular attentional set and overcome distraction by salient, task-irrelevant information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).      Keywords: Driver distraction;<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0096-1523
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0030027
ID  - ref1
ER  -