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Activity

CABIN Brownbag- Dr. Shaun Vecera (University of Iowa)

“The control of visual attention via distractor rejection”

Date:
Time:
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
Center for Brain, Biology & Behavior Room: B60
Contact:
Jessica Cronin, (402) 472-0168, jcronin4@unl.edu
Abstract: Visual attention is a powerful cognitive process because it permits the rapid updating of behavioral goals and priorities. When we search or visual environments, we often guide attention based on the targets of our current behavioral goal using ‘target templates’ that are ubiquitous in theories of attention. However, efficient visual search also can result from ignoring distracting information. Learning to reject or suppress these distracting, non-target objects can lead to more effective visual search for targets. In a series of experiments, I will discuss recent experiments that indicate that participants can learn to overcome visual distractors if given reliable search regularities. Our findings integrate visual search with the learning of visual statistical regularities to produce learned distractor rejection. Learned distractor rejection occurs for both features and locations and can occur in the face of attentional guidance toward targets. These findings have implications for theories of attention and suggest that in addition to incorporating mechanisms to guide attention toward targets, theories should account for guidance away from non-target distractors.

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