Setting semantics: Conceptual set can determine the physical properties that capture attention

Abstract

The ability of a stimulus to capture visuospatial attention depends on the interplay between its bottom-up saliency and its relationship to an observer’s top-down control set, such that stimuli capture attention if they match the pre-defined properties that distinguish a searched-for target from distractors (Folk, Remington, & Johnston, 1992). Despite decades of research on this phenomenon, however, the vast majority has focussed exclusively on matches based on low-level physical properties. Yet if contingent capture is indeed a ‘top-down’ influence on attention, then semantic content should be accessible and able to determine which physical features capture attention. Here we tested this prediction by examining whether a semantically-defined target could create a control-set for particular features. To do this, we had participants search to identify a target that was differentiated from distractors by its meaning (e.g., the word ‘red’ amongst colour words all written in black). Before the target array, a cue was presented, and it was varied whether the cue appeared in the physical colour implied by the target word. Across three experiments, we found that cues that embodied the meaning of the word produced greater cueing than cues that did not. This suggests top-down control sets activate content that is semantically associated with the target-defining property, and this content in turn has the ability to exogenously orient attention.