Attentional deployment in the presence of multiple biasing signals: the interplay between top-down control and statistical learning (v1.1)

The main goal of this project was to investigate whether different attentional control (AC) mechanisms jointly act to shape the priority of given stimuli/locations or whether, at any given moment, one mechanism prevails over the others, gaining precedence onto the neural representation of the visual space, known as spatial priority map. Here we tested the unique and combined effects of different 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 or region-specific valid (vs. neutral) cues, respectively. Experiment 2 investigated the influence of statistical learning (SL) by introducing an imbalance in target frequency across locations (high/intermediate/low). Experiments 3, 3b, and 5 evaluated the interaction between these two AC signals, by using location-specific and region-specific 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/absence of other AC mechanisms. All data are available for reanalysis, modelling, or meta-analysis.