Dataset: Automatic Covert Attentional Capture in Multiple Object Tracking

Multiple Object Tracking (MOT) is assumed to be handled by bottom-up (e.g. Pylyshsyn & Storm, 1988) or top-down processes of selection (e.g. Yantis, 1992) or both (e.g. Oksama & Hyönä, 2008) – depending on the model assumed. The Attentional Capture (AC) paradigm (e.g. Yantis & Jonides, 1984) is regularly employed to demonstrate influences of bottom-up and/or top-down attentional control. It has up to now not been used to assess influences of irrelevant stimuli in MOT. We investigated whether AC does occur in MOT: Are irrelevant stimuli processed at all in dynamic attentional tasks? We found that sudden onset singletons were effective in lowering probe detection thus demonstrating AC. Tracking performance as dependent measure was not affected. The AC effect persisted in conditions of higher tracking load (experiment 2) and was dramatically increased in lower presentation frequency (experiment 3). We discuss that a stable representation of the tracking array in visual working memory allows managing strong disruptions of attention during tracking.

多目标追踪（Multiple Object Tracking, MOT）的加工机制依所采用的模型不同，可被认为由自下而上（如Pylyshsyn & Storm, 1988）或自上而下的选择性注意加工（如Yantis, 1992）介导，亦或由二者共同介导（如Oksama & Hyönä, 2008）。注意捕获（Attentional Capture, AC）范式（如Yantis & Jonides, 1984）常被用于验证自下而上和/或自上而下的注意控制效应，但截至目前，该范式尚未被用于评估无关刺激对多目标追踪任务的影响。本研究旨在探究注意捕获效应是否会出现在多目标追踪任务中：动态注意任务中，无关刺激是否真的会被加工？实验结果显示，突然出现的单例刺激能够有效降低探测任务的正确率，从而验证了注意捕获效应的存在；而作为因变量的追踪作业成绩并未受到显著影响。注意捕获效应在高追踪负荷条件下（实验2）依然稳定存在，而在较低刺激呈现频率条件下（实验3）则显著增强。本研究讨论认为，视觉工作记忆中对追踪阵列的稳定表征，能够帮助个体在追踪过程中应对强烈的注意干扰。