Typicality Modulates the Visual Awareness of Objects
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Recent evidence suggests that typicality can influence the guidance of attention. However, it is unclear whether typicality can influence the visual awareness of objects. To address this issue, we conducted four experiments using an inattentional blindness task. Participants tracked moving images of objects and counted how often members of one category bounced off the edges of the display. On the last trial, an unexpected object moved across the display. In our first two experiments, this object could belong to the same category as the tracked or untracked objects. Consistent with previous evidence, participants were more likely to notice this object when it belonged to the same category as their current attentional set. However, while participants were more likely to notice atypical objects that belonged to a different category than their current attentional set, this pattern of results reversed when participants tracked atypical objects. In our last two experiments, the unexpected object could belong to the same category as the tracked objects or a new category that did not appear on any of the previous trials. Unlike the previous experiments, participants were no more likely to notice objects that belonged to the same category as their current attentional set. However, participants were more likely to notice typical members of this category and the new category. Together, these findings suggest that typicality can modulate the visual awareness of objects, but only when the visual features of the unexpected object do not vary systematically with the other objects in the display.
Source: OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints)
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7160745838