Can enhancement and suppression concurrently guide attention? An assessment at the individual level [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]

Background: Although people can pay attention to targets while ignoring distractors, previous research suggests that target enhancement and distractor suppression work separately and independently. Here, we sought to replicate previous findings and re-establish their independence. Methods: We employ...

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Main Authors: Kaoru Amano, Tomoya Kawashima
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: F1000 Research Ltd 2022-09-01
Series:F1000Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://f1000research.com/articles/11-232/v2
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author Kaoru Amano
Tomoya Kawashima
author_facet Kaoru Amano
Tomoya Kawashima
author_sort Kaoru Amano
collection DOAJ
description Background: Although people can pay attention to targets while ignoring distractors, previous research suggests that target enhancement and distractor suppression work separately and independently. Here, we sought to replicate previous findings and re-establish their independence. Methods: We employed an internet-based psychological experiment. We presented participants with a visual search task in which they searched for a specified shape with or without a singleton. We replicated the singleton-presence benefit in search performance, but this effect was limited to cases where the target color was fixed across all trials. In a randomly intermixed probe task (30% of all trials), the participants searched for a letter among colored probes; we used this task to assess how far attention was separately allocated toward the target or distractor dimensions. Results: We found a negative correlation between target enhancement and distractor suppression, indicating that the participants who paid closer attention to target features ignored distractor features less effectively and vice versa. Averaged data showed no benefit from target color or cost from distractor color, possibly because of the substantial differences in strategy across participants. Conclusions: These results suggest that target enhancement and distractor suppression guide attention in mutually dependent ways and that the relative contribution of these components depends on the participants’ search strategy.
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spelling doaj.art-377ccc4b15ea4a9291b4634a2da8301b2022-12-22T03:38:16ZengF1000 Research LtdF1000Research2046-14022022-09-0111138730Can enhancement and suppression concurrently guide attention? An assessment at the individual level [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]Kaoru Amano0Tomoya Kawashima1Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), Advanced ICT Research Institute, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), 1-4 Yamadaoka, Suita City, Osaka, 565-0871, JapanGraduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University, 1-2 Yamadaoka, Suita City, Osaka, 565-0871, JapanBackground: Although people can pay attention to targets while ignoring distractors, previous research suggests that target enhancement and distractor suppression work separately and independently. Here, we sought to replicate previous findings and re-establish their independence. Methods: We employed an internet-based psychological experiment. We presented participants with a visual search task in which they searched for a specified shape with or without a singleton. We replicated the singleton-presence benefit in search performance, but this effect was limited to cases where the target color was fixed across all trials. In a randomly intermixed probe task (30% of all trials), the participants searched for a letter among colored probes; we used this task to assess how far attention was separately allocated toward the target or distractor dimensions. Results: We found a negative correlation between target enhancement and distractor suppression, indicating that the participants who paid closer attention to target features ignored distractor features less effectively and vice versa. Averaged data showed no benefit from target color or cost from distractor color, possibly because of the substantial differences in strategy across participants. Conclusions: These results suggest that target enhancement and distractor suppression guide attention in mutually dependent ways and that the relative contribution of these components depends on the participants’ search strategy.https://f1000research.com/articles/11-232/v2Attention Enhancement Suppression Visual searcheng
spellingShingle Kaoru Amano
Tomoya Kawashima
Can enhancement and suppression concurrently guide attention? An assessment at the individual level [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]
F1000Research
Attention
Enhancement
Suppression
Visual search
eng
title Can enhancement and suppression concurrently guide attention? An assessment at the individual level [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]
title_full Can enhancement and suppression concurrently guide attention? An assessment at the individual level [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]
title_fullStr Can enhancement and suppression concurrently guide attention? An assessment at the individual level [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]
title_full_unstemmed Can enhancement and suppression concurrently guide attention? An assessment at the individual level [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]
title_short Can enhancement and suppression concurrently guide attention? An assessment at the individual level [version 2; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]
title_sort can enhancement and suppression concurrently guide attention an assessment at the individual level version 2 peer review 2 approved 1 approved with reservations
topic Attention
Enhancement
Suppression
Visual search
eng
url https://f1000research.com/articles/11-232/v2
work_keys_str_mv AT kaoruamano canenhancementandsuppressionconcurrentlyguideattentionanassessmentattheindividuallevelversion2peerreview2approved1approvedwithreservations
AT tomoyakawashima canenhancementandsuppressionconcurrentlyguideattentionanassessmentattheindividuallevelversion2peerreview2approved1approvedwithreservations