Attentional capture in stimulus rich computer interfaces

To explore the degree which attentional set in one task interferes with performance in a secondary task, we have developed a prototype SRRI test system. This comprises a central task involving driving through a virtual maze and the presentation of an intermittent stream of competing stimuli of varying levels of salience. Centrally presented arrows are followed in the driving task and the stream of competing stimuli is presented via a head mounted display. The colour relationship between the central arrows and stimuli in the competing stream is varied. How this "task prescribed" colour relationship impinges upon attentional capture by stimuli in the competing stream is investigated. This experiment has revealed no discernible carryover effect of attentional set from one task to the other in either accuracy or reaction time for detecting the targets in the stream. Thus, the attention system seems to be adept at allocating feature based attention in a way that does not spontaneously migrate from one task to another.