Work

Shaping Attention With Reward

Year: 2013

Type: article

Abstract: The contribution of rewarded actions to automatic attentional selection remains obscure. We hypothesized that some forms of automatic orienting, such as object-based selection, can be completely abandoned in favor of a reward-maximizing strategy. In the two experiments reported here, we presented identical visual stimuli to observers while manipulating what was being rewarded (targets in different locations from the cue or in random object locations) and the type of reward received (money or points). We found that reward alone, not the objects, guides attentional selection and thus entirely predicts behavior. These results suggest that guidance of selective attention, although automatic, is flexible and can be adjusted in accordance with external nonsensory reward-based factors.

Source: Psychological Science

DOI: 10.1177/0956797613490743

Authors: Sarah Shomstein, Jacoba Johnson

Institution: George Washington University

Language: English

Topic: Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Eye Institute

Award: Cortical responses, and their modification, with limited attentional contribution