Separation Of Color-based And Location-based Salience Distractor Suppression

To search for a specific target from a complex visual scene is a process involving the target activation and distractor inhibition.Currently,distractor inhibition is an issue at core of the visual attention research.Researchers believe that there is a salience distractor that can automatically attract the visual attention.However,whether the salience distractor inhibition contains the color inhibition and location inhibition or not remains a dispute.In 2010,Sawaki,Luck,et al.,by studying the salience distractor inhibition under the uncued experimental procedures,put forward the first-order feature inhibition theory of the signal inhibition hypothesis,and though that,when the color of the salience distractor is known in advanced,inhibition of the color can be achieved through learning.On the contrary,Awh et al.(2012)put forward the statistical learning theory for the attention selection experience,holding that the attention experience can trigger the attention deviation,and that one way to trigger the attention deviation is statistical learning.According to their theory,the salience distractor inhibition is caused because the probability for the salience distractor to appear in one specific location is significantly higher than that of other positions.Consequently,the location with a higher appearance probability of the salience distractor is inhibited,compared with the location with a smaller appearance probability.In other words,this is a location-based inhibition.In this research,three experiences are carried out to separate the color and location inhibition of the salience distractor inhibition so as to examine the salience distractor inhibition.In Experiment 1,24 college students are adopted as participants,and the Paired-Samples T Test is carried out on the respondents.They are assigned with the typical attention capturing task(addtional singleton paradigm).Research shows that participants’ s reaction outcomes demonstrate the salience distractor inhibition effect.When participants acquire the salience distractor inhibition,the reaction time under the salience distractor is significantly shorter than that without the salience distractor。Experiment 2 is made up of Experiment 2A and Experiment 2B.Both experiments adopt college students as participants.Based on Experiment 1,location factors are controlled to see whether the color-based salience distractor exists.Experiment 2B also chooses 21 college students as participants.In Experiment 2,color factors are controlled based on Experiment 1to explore whether the location-based salience distractor inhibition exists.Research shows that the salience distractor inhibition,either based on the color or based on the position can both ensure the inhibition to below the baseline.Additionally,when the salience distractor inhibition of specific colors is learned with other conditions maintained the same,color changes will result in the disappearance of the inhibition effect,and the appearance of the capturing effect.Similar results are also found with the location inhibition,that is,after the inhibition of specific locations is learned with other conditions maintained the same,location changes will lead to the disappearance of the inhibition effect and the appearance of the capturing effect.The research finding provides solid evidence for the existence of the salience distractor inhibition based on color or location.To sum up,Experiment 2 separates the salience distractor inhibition based on the color and location,respectively.Experiment 3 is divided into Experiment 3A and Experiment 3B,and both experiments adopt 35 college students as participants.Based on Experiment 2A,Experiment 3A adds the probe task under red conditions.The capture task and the probe task are combined to form the capture-probe paradigm to study the color-based inhibition attributes.Based on Experiment 2B,Experiment 3B adds the probe task under the condition of not changing the location,and the capture-probe paradigm is used to analyze the location-based inhibition attributes.Research shows that under color inhibition(3A),the early-stage probe presented at0 to 200 ms behind the attention spot can easily capture the attention.On the contrary,the post-stage probe presented at 200 to 400 ms is inhibited.Under location inhibition(3B),both the early-stage probe and the late-stage probe are inhibited,and the current research results demonstrate the consistency between the color-based salience distractor inhibition and the proactive inhibition,and that the location-based salience distractor inhibition are consistent with its reactivity inhibition.To sum up,this research comes to the following conclusion: The salience distractor inhibition can happen based on the color or location,and that the color inhibition and proactive inhibition are consistent with each other,so it is with the location inhibition and reactive inhibition.