Materials Associated with Aversive Value Capture Attention

Mentor 1

Deborah Hannula

Location

Union Wisconsin Room

Start Date

5-4-2019 1:30 PM

End Date

5-4-2019 3:30 PM

Description

Recent work from our lab indicates that attention capture is not limited to perceptually salient items but extends to materials that are distinctive by virtue of their learned aversive value. However, aversive items in our original work were onsets – distinctive not only based on learned value, but also by their sudden appearance in the search display. In two new experiments, we eliminate this potential confound and examine whether capture effects persist. Participants in these experiments search for a target stimulus defined by color during a training phase. They are told to make a single saccade to the target location as quickly and accurately as possible. In both experiments, shock delivery was dictated by the color of the target stimulus – e.g., blue = 80% reinforcement, yellow = 20% reinforcement – so that one target (blue) becomes a conditional stimulus (CS+) and the other (yellow) a predictor of relative safety (CS-). Subsequently, in a test phase, participants search for a shape target (e.g., diamond among circles). Occasionally, one of the distractors is either the CS+ or the CS-, but shock is never administered. Results from Experiment 1 indicate that eye movements during test are made in error more often to the CS+ than the CS- and that this occurs even in the absence of explicit knowledge about training phase shock-color contingencies. However, contingency awareness was assessed at the end of the experiment using a post-experimental questionnaire, an approach that may be insufficiently sensitive to low levels of awareness present during training. In Experiment 2, we attempt to replicate these results with participants making button responses to indicate how likely they are to be shocked. This approach will permit us to make more definitive claims about capture with and without awareness after having eliminated any potential concerns about the perceptual salience of aversive distractors.

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Apr 5th, 1:30 PM Apr 5th, 3:30 PM

Materials Associated with Aversive Value Capture Attention

Union Wisconsin Room

Recent work from our lab indicates that attention capture is not limited to perceptually salient items but extends to materials that are distinctive by virtue of their learned aversive value. However, aversive items in our original work were onsets – distinctive not only based on learned value, but also by their sudden appearance in the search display. In two new experiments, we eliminate this potential confound and examine whether capture effects persist. Participants in these experiments search for a target stimulus defined by color during a training phase. They are told to make a single saccade to the target location as quickly and accurately as possible. In both experiments, shock delivery was dictated by the color of the target stimulus – e.g., blue = 80% reinforcement, yellow = 20% reinforcement – so that one target (blue) becomes a conditional stimulus (CS+) and the other (yellow) a predictor of relative safety (CS-). Subsequently, in a test phase, participants search for a shape target (e.g., diamond among circles). Occasionally, one of the distractors is either the CS+ or the CS-, but shock is never administered. Results from Experiment 1 indicate that eye movements during test are made in error more often to the CS+ than the CS- and that this occurs even in the absence of explicit knowledge about training phase shock-color contingencies. However, contingency awareness was assessed at the end of the experiment using a post-experimental questionnaire, an approach that may be insufficiently sensitive to low levels of awareness present during training. In Experiment 2, we attempt to replicate these results with participants making button responses to indicate how likely they are to be shocked. This approach will permit us to make more definitive claims about capture with and without awareness after having eliminated any potential concerns about the perceptual salience of aversive distractors.