Uncertainty as a determinant of attentional control settings

Abstract

Previous studies have demonstrated that attentional capture occurs based on attentional control settings. These settings specify what features are selected for processing as well as what features are filtered out. To examine how attentional control settings are flexibly constructed when target and/or distractor features are uncertain, the current paper presents four experiments in which the numbers of target and distractor features were manipulated. The results showed that attentional control settings were configured in terms of a fixed feature when either the target or the distractor feature was uncertain and the other was fixed over trials. In addition, attention was tuned towards the specific target feature based on attentional control settings when both target and distractor features were either fixed or uncertain. The selectivity of the target or distractor feature in the attentional control setting depended on which of the target and distractor features were defined with uncertainty. These results indicate that attentional control settings are flexibly determined by given task demands, especially including the predictability of target and distractor features.