Overriding the impact of attentional probability learning by top-down control (v1)

Here we tested the unique and combined effects of different attentional control (AC) mechanisms on attentional deployment. Experiments 1 and 4 assessed the impact of top-down control by using an endogenous cueing protocol with location-specific (Experiment 1) or region-specific (Experiment 4) valid (vs. neutral) cues. Experiment 2 investigated the influence of statistical learning (SL) by introducing an imbalance in target frequency across locations (high/intermediate/low). Experiments 3 and 5 evaluated the interaction between these two AC signals, by using location-specific (see Exp. 1) and region-specific (see Exp. 4) cueing, respectively. Results showed better performance following a valid (vs. neutral) cue and in the high (vs. low) frequency location, confirming the influence of both mechanisms on attentional guidance. However, when active together, top-down control seems to prevail over the biasing impact of SL, with the latter emerging only in neutral cue trials. By introducing a salient distractor, we also assessed the interfering effects of bottom-up AC signals which diverted attention from the target, regardless of the presence or absence of other AC mechanisms.

本研究测试了不同注意控制（attentional control, AC）机制对注意分配的独立及联合效应。实验1和实验4采用内源性线索范式，分别使用位置特异性（实验1）或区域特异性（实验4）的有效（vs.中性）线索，评估了自上而下控制的影响。实验2通过在不同位置引入目标频率失衡（高/中/低），探究了统计学习（statistical learning, SL）的影响。实验3和实验5分别采用位置特异性（参见实验1）和区域特异性（参见实验4）线索，评估了这两种AC信号之间的交互作用。结果显示，有效线索（vs.中性线索）条件下及高频率位置（vs.低频率位置）的表现更优，证实了两种机制对注意引导的影响。然而，当两者共同作用时，自上而下控制似乎优于SL的偏向效应，后者仅在中性线索试次中显现。通过引入显著干扰物，我们还评估了自下而上AC信号的干扰效应——无论其他AC机制是否存在，该信号都会使注意偏离目标。