Turatto Massimo, Galfano Giovanni, Gardini Simona, Mascetti Gian Gastone
Department of Cognition Sciences and Education, University of Trenton, Rovereto, Italy.
Q J Exp Psychol A. 2004 Feb;57(2):297-324. doi: 10.1080/02724980343000242.
Four experiments examined attentional capture by colour as assessed by two different investigative methods. Subjects performed a visual search task for a vertical-target line embedded among tilted-distractor lines, presented inside 4, 8, or 12 coloured discs. Interestingly, when the colour singleton was task irrelevant, and data were analysed by means of the display-size method combined with the zero-slope criterion, no evidence for attentional capture by colour was found. However, when data were analysed by means of the distance method, which consists of monitoring the spatial relationship between the target and the singleton, results showed that the target was found faster and/or more accurately when it was inside the singleton than when it was in a nonsingleton location. This provided evidence for a stimulus-driven attentional capture. In addition, the application of signal detection methodology showed that attentional capture, as revealed by the distance method, resulted from a perceptual modulation at the singleton location, rather than from a criterion shift. We conclude that, at least with the kind of stimuli used here, the display-size method combined with the zero-slope criterion is less than ideal for investigating how static discontinuities can affect the automatic deployment of visual attention.
四项实验通过两种不同的研究方法对颜色引起的注意捕获进行了研究。受试者要在嵌入于4个、8个或12个彩色圆盘内的倾斜干扰线中寻找一条垂直的目标线，执行视觉搜索任务。有趣的是，当颜色单一物与任务无关，且通过显示大小方法结合零斜率标准对数据进行分析时，未发现颜色引起注意捕获的证据。然而，当通过距离方法（该方法包括监测目标与单一物之间的空间关系）对数据进行分析时，结果显示，目标位于单一物内部时比位于非单一物位置时被发现得更快和/或更准确。这为刺激驱动的注意捕获提供了证据。此外，信号检测方法的应用表明，距离方法所揭示的注意捕获是由单一物位置处的知觉调制引起的，而非标准偏移所致。我们得出结论，至少对于此处使用的这类刺激而言，显示大小方法结合零斜率标准对于研究静态不连续性如何影响视觉注意的自动分配并不理想。
