Presentation Information
[O3-03]The priority accumulation framework – attention in time and space
*Mor Sasi1, Daniel Toledano1, Shlomit Yuval-Greenberg1,2, Dominique Lamy1,2 (1. Tel Aviv University (Israel), 2. Sagol school of neuroscience (Israel))
Keywords:
Visual-search,Eye-tracking,Attention,Capture
Most visual-search theories assume that our attention is automatically allocated to the location with the highest priority at any given moment. The Priority Accumulation Framework (PAF) challenges this assumption. It suggests that attention-guiding factors determine both when and where attention is deployed. Accordingly, some events are more likely to trigger shifts of attention (“when” dimension), and the spatial distribution of these shifts depends on the priority weights that have accumulated at each location based on past and present events.
In four experiments, we tested the predictions of this hypothesis against competing accounts. We examined overt attention by recording first saccades in a free-viewing spatial cueing task. We manipulated search difficulty, cue salience, spatially specific vs. non-specific events, as well as the time interval between events.
Consistent with PAF’s predictions, only a minority of first saccades occurred early in response to the irrelevant event (attentional capture), and most occurred later, in response to the action-relevant event. In addition, we showed that for all types of events, the spatial distribution of first saccades depended on the priority accumulated at each location from previous and current events (e.g., previous target locations, cue, target-distractor similarity), with the weight of previous events increasing with search difficulty.
Our findings provide strong support for the critical predictions of PAF. By offering a mechanistic account of how visual attention is allocated in space and in time, PAF provides an integrative and parsimonious account of attentional behavior that resolves enduring controversies about the factors that guide our attention.
In four experiments, we tested the predictions of this hypothesis against competing accounts. We examined overt attention by recording first saccades in a free-viewing spatial cueing task. We manipulated search difficulty, cue salience, spatially specific vs. non-specific events, as well as the time interval between events.
Consistent with PAF’s predictions, only a minority of first saccades occurred early in response to the irrelevant event (attentional capture), and most occurred later, in response to the action-relevant event. In addition, we showed that for all types of events, the spatial distribution of first saccades depended on the priority accumulated at each location from previous and current events (e.g., previous target locations, cue, target-distractor similarity), with the weight of previous events increasing with search difficulty.
Our findings provide strong support for the critical predictions of PAF. By offering a mechanistic account of how visual attention is allocated in space and in time, PAF provides an integrative and parsimonious account of attentional behavior that resolves enduring controversies about the factors that guide our attention.