Top-down search strategies cannot override attentional capture.

It's under control: top-down search strategies can override attentional capture.

Bacon and Egeth (1994) proposed that observed instances of attentional capture by feature singletons (e.g., color) were the result of a salience-based strategy adopted by subjects (singleton detection mode) and, thus, were not automatic. They showed that subjects could override capture by adopting strategies based on searching for specific target features (feature search mode). However, Theeuwe...

Attention capture while switching search strategies: Evidence for a breakdown in top-down attentional control

Attentional capture by a perceptually salient non-target facilitates target processing through inhibition and rapid rejection.

Perceptually salient distractors typically interfere with target processing in visual search situations. Here we demonstrate that a perceptually salient distractor that captures attention can nevertheless facilitate task performance if the observer knows that it cannot be the target. Eye-position data indicate that facilitation is achieved by two strategies: inhibition when the first saccade wa...

The size of an attentional window modulates attentional capture by color singletons.

Researchers have proposed that during visual search, a color singleton cannot capture attention in a bottom-up fashion (Jonides & Yantis, 1988). In the present study, we manipulated the size of the attentional window by asking participants to detect either a global (diffuse attention) or a local (focused attention) shape before starting the search for a nonsingleton target. We demonstrate that ...

Attentional window and attentional capture 1 THE SIZE OF AN ATTENTIONAL WINDOW MODULATES ATTENTIONAL CAPTURE BY COLOR SINGLETONS

It has been proposed that during visual search a color singleton cannot capture attention in a bottom-up fashion (Jonides & Yantis, 1988). In the present study we manipulated the size of the attentional window by asking participants to detect either a global (diffuse attention) or a local shape (focused attention) before starting the search for a non-singleton target. We demonstrate that increa...