Inter-trial priming is not sufficient for feature-based distractor suppression
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Previous research has showed that observers can learn to suppress a salient distractor (e.g., a unique red item among green ones) when its salient feature (red) remains constant. Several authors suggested that such suppression builds up through repetition of the distractor’s salient feature via intertrial priming. Support for this account primarily comes from the finding that interference from a salient distractor is weaker when this distractor’s salient color repeats on successive trials than when the distractor takes on the previous target’s color. Here, we tested an alternative account, unrelated to distractor suppression, according to which this priming effect reflects increased distraction when the salient distractor shares the previous target’s color rather than decreased distraction when this distractor’s color repeats. To dissociate the two accounts, we randomly selected the distractor and the other search items’ colors from four possible colors. Thus, on successive trials, the distractor and target colors could repeat, be new or swap. We found that relative to the new-color condition, distractor interference increased when the distractor took on the previous target color, but was unaffected by whether the distractor’s color repeated. Our findings challenge the claim that intertrial priming accounts for distractor suppression.
Source: Visual Cognition
Authors: Aniruddha Ramgir, Dominique Lamy
Institution: Tel Aviv University
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Funder: Israel Science Foundation
Award: G1632850347
OpenAlex ID: W4401820836