{ "componentChunkName": "component---src-templates-publication-template-tsx", "path": "/publications/what-to-where-right-attention-set-wrong-location", "result": {"data":{"markdownRemark":{"html":"
\n

TL;DR: Looking for a feature such as a color can make a matching object easier to notice, but that advantage depends heavily on where the object appears. Across four inattentional-blindness experiments, the benefit was strong inside the attended region and substantially smaller or absent outside it.

\n
\n

What We Look For Is Only Part of What We See

\n

Imagine scanning a crowd for a friend in a red shirt. Holding “red” in mind creates an attention set: a temporary priority for a feature that helps matching objects compete for awareness. Many accounts treat that priority as field-wide, as though setting attention for red boosts red objects wherever they appear.

\n

Location introduces a second filter. People direct spatial attention toward the region where a task is unfolding, and they can miss a visible but unexpected event elsewhere. That failure is called inattentional blindness. The question behind this study was whether a feature match can overcome that spatial boundary. If an unexpected object has exactly the color a person is tracking, will it capture awareness even in a region that person has no reason to monitor?

\n

The experiments show that the answer depends on both what the object is and where it appears.

\n

Testing Features Against Location

\n

Participants watched black and white Ls and Ts move around a gray display. They counted events involving one color, creating an attention set for that color. On a critical trial, a cross appeared without warning and traveled either through the task area or beyond it. Afterward, participants reported whether they had noticed anything new and answered questions about its appearance. A participant counted as noticing the cross only after reporting it and correctly identifying at least one of its features.

\n

The four web-based experiments tested 2,272 U.S. adults recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk; 1,568 remained after preplanned exclusions. Experiment 1 was exploratory, and Experiments 2 through 4 were preregistered. Across studies, the cross could match the tracked color, match the ignored color, or be a salient red that differed from every other moving object. Later experiments also changed the display to test whether clutter or distance from fixation could explain the pattern.

\n

This design joined two established influences on noticing in a single task: similarity to the observer’s attention set and proximity to the current focus of spatial attention.

\n

The Same Set Had a Smaller Reach

\n

Experiment 1 provided an initial surprise. When the cross appeared outside the task area, 70% of participants noticed a salient red cross, compared with 38% who noticed a white cross matching their attention set. Away from the attended region, standing out from the display mattered more than sharing the tracked color.

\n

Experiment 2 supplied the clearest feature-by-location comparison. Inside the task area, 89% noticed a white cross that matched the attended color, while only 6% noticed a black cross matching the ignored color. Outside the task area, noticing was lower for the matching white cross and higher for the nonmatching black one: 50% versus 27%. The attention-set advantage therefore fell from 83 percentage points inside to 23 points outside, a statistically significant interaction.

\n

This was not just a general decline in visibility away from the task. The matching cross became less likely to be noticed outside the attended region, but the nonmatching cross became more likely to be noticed there. The location of attention changed how strongly the feature set shaped awareness.

\n

Clutter and Gaze Narrowed the Explanation

\n

Experiment 3 placed moving letters in both the attended and unattended regions so that differences in visual clutter would not carry the result. Inside the task area, noticing was 87% for a matching cross and 7% for a nonmatching one. Outside it, the rates were 5% and 4%. Equal clutter again produced a statistically significant interaction, although the very low outside rates leave open the possibility that a floor effect concealed a small feature-matching benefit.

\n

\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n

\n

Experiment 4 addressed another alternative: the unattended region had previously been farther from the center of gaze. Participants instead attended two diagonally opposite quadrants while the cross crossed attended or unattended quadrants at comparable distances from fixation. The attention-set advantage remained larger inside than outside: 77% versus 28% in attended quadrants, compared with 31% versus 11% in unattended ones.

\n

That final interaction did not reach the conventional threshold for statistical significance (p = .072). The direction matched the earlier experiments, but the smaller difference suggests that gaze proximity may explain part of the spatial effect.

\n

Why “What” Cannot Be Separated From “Where”

\n

Together, the experiments challenge the idea that a feature-based attention set operates uniformly across the visual field. A matching feature can strongly shape what reaches awareness where attention is already directed, yet provide much less help elsewhere. The study does not establish whether this pattern reflects enhancement of attended features and regions, suppression of unattended regions, or both.

\n

The distinction matters for attempts to make hazards resemble what observers expect. Making a motorcycle look more like a car, for example, might help when it appears within a driver’s attended region. If it enters from an unattended side road, matching expectations may offer less benefit; reducing its visual distinctiveness could even make it harder to notice. We therefore argue for more research before turning feature matching into safety policy.

\n

Those implications remain bounded. The studies used simple computerized displays and demanding tracking tasks with adults who passed vision and color-vision checks. They did not test driving or other real-world behavior directly. The strongest conclusion is narrower: what people are prepared to see works together with where they are already attending.

\n

Full Citation

\n

Stothart, C., Simons, D. J., Boot, W. R., & Wright, T. J. (2019). What to where: The right attention set for the wrong location. Perception, 48(7), 602-615. https://doi.org/10.1177/0301006619854302

","tableOfContents":"","frontmatter":{"title":"What to Where: The Right Attention Set for the Wrong Location","description":"Four online inattentional-blindness experiments showed that feature-based attention sets strongly shaped noticing within an attended region but had weaker or absent effects beyond it.","featuredImage":{"childImageSharp":{"gatsbyImageData":{"layout":"constrained","placeholder":{"fallback":"data:image/png;base64,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"},"images":{"fallback":{"src":"/static/3db7ef1eedbd02fc20faa401e4e9d21c/38262/what-to-where-inattentional-blindness-task.png","srcSet":"/static/3db7ef1eedbd02fc20faa401e4e9d21c/1db07/what-to-where-inattentional-blindness-task.png 238w,\n/static/3db7ef1eedbd02fc20faa401e4e9d21c/8f350/what-to-where-inattentional-blindness-task.png 475w,\n/static/3db7ef1eedbd02fc20faa401e4e9d21c/38262/what-to-where-inattentional-blindness-task.png 950w","sizes":"(min-width: 950px) 950px, 100vw"},"sources":[{"srcSet":"/static/3db7ef1eedbd02fc20faa401e4e9d21c/33c1f/what-to-where-inattentional-blindness-task.webp 238w,\n/static/3db7ef1eedbd02fc20faa401e4e9d21c/c1e20/what-to-where-inattentional-blindness-task.webp 475w,\n/static/3db7ef1eedbd02fc20faa401e4e9d21c/c94d5/what-to-where-inattentional-blindness-task.webp 950w","type":"image/webp","sizes":"(min-width: 950px) 950px, 100vw"}]},"width":1400,"height":935.7894736842105}}}}},"allStothartPublicationsJson":{"nodes":[{"title":"Overcoming Cognition-Limiting Heuristics in Mission Planning","summaryPath":"/publications/overcoming-cognition-limiting-heuristics-in-mission-planning","reportNumber":"ARI TR 1471","year":2025,"publisher":"U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences","publisherUrl":"https://www.dtic.mil/document;accessionNumber=AD1346348;type=DTICTR","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/399721342_Overcoming_Cognition-Limiting_Heuristics_in_Mission_Planning","podcast":null},{"title":"Thinking-in-Time","summaryPath":"/publications/developing-thinking-in-time-skills","reportNumber":"ARI-SSSR 2024-31","year":2024,"publisher":"U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences","publisherUrl":"https://www.dtic.mil/document;accessionNumber=AD1306281;type=DTICTR","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/394451644_Thinking_in_Time_A_Scenario-Based_Developmental_Method_for_Army_Officers","podcast":null},{"title":"Active Inference","summaryPath":"/publications/active-inference-decision-making-uncertainty","reportNumber":"Scientific Report 2024-09","year":2024,"publisher":"U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences","publisherUrl":"https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/html/trecms/AD1226410/index.html","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/394451646_Active_Inference_A_Competency_for_Making_Decisions_in_Uncertain_Situations","podcast":null},{"title":"Active Listening Skills Training","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":"Scientific Report 2024-18","year":2024,"publisher":"U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences","publisherUrl":"https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/html/trecms/AD1230849/index.html","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/394451827_Active_Listening_Skills_Training_Improving_Officer-_Soldier_Relationships_in_Developmental_Counseling","podcast":null},{"title":"Can Artificial Intelligence Systems Improve Information-Gathering Efficiency in Army Mission Command Processes?","summaryPath":"/publications/ai-information-gathering-army-mission-command","reportNumber":"Technical Report 1382","year":2020,"publisher":"U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences","publisherUrl":"https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD1107156","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344405669_Can_Artificial_Intelligence_Systems_Improve_Information-Gathering_Efficiency_in_Army_Mission_Command_Processes","podcast":null},{"title":"Productive Discourse to Enhance Army Strategic Planning","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":"Technical Report 1384","year":2020,"publisher":"U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences","publisherUrl":"https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD1107160","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344405821_Productive_Discourse_to_Enhance_Army_Strategic_Planning","podcast":null},{"title":"Human Factors Guidelines to Develop Educational Tip Cards for Aging Road Users","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":"BDV30 977-15","year":2017,"publisher":"Florida Department of Transportation","publisherUrl":null,"downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319448916_Human_Factors_Guidelines_to_Develop_Educational_Tip_Cards_for_Aging_Road_Users","podcast":null},{"title":"Driving Simulator Studies of the Effectiveness of Countermeasures to Prevent Wrong-Way Crashes","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":"BDV30-977-10","year":2015,"publisher":"Florida Department of Transportation","publisherUrl":null,"downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319448611_Driving_Simulator_Studies_of_the_Effectiveness_of_Countermeasures_to_Prevent_Wrong-Way_Crashes_BDV30-977-10","podcast":null},{"title":"Aging Road User Studies of Intersection Safety","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":"BDV30 TWO 977-04","year":2014,"publisher":"Florida Department of Transportation","publisherUrl":null,"downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319448724_Aging_Road_Studies_of_Intersection_Safety_BDV30_TWO_977-04","podcast":null},{"title":"Aging Road User, Bicyclist, and Pedestrian Safety","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":"BDK83 977-15","year":2013,"publisher":"Florida Department of Transportation","publisherUrl":null,"downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319448505_Aging_Road_User_Bicyclist_and_Pedestrian_Safety_Effective_Bicycling_Signs_and_Preventing_Left-Turn_Crashes_BDK83_977-15","podcast":null},{"title":"Aging Driver and Pedestrian Safety","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":"BDK83 977-12","year":2012,"publisher":"Florida Department of Transportation","publisherUrl":null,"downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319448395_Aging_Driver_and_Pedestrian_Safety_Parking_Lot_Hazards_Study_BDK83_977-12","podcast":null},{"title":"Aging Driver and Pedestrian Safety","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":"BDK83 977-09","year":2011,"publisher":"Florida Department of Transportation","publisherUrl":null,"downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281094963_Aging_Driver_and_Pedestrian_Safety_Human_Factors_Studies_BDK83_977-09","podcast":null},{"title":"Typicality Modulates the Visual Awareness of Objects","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":null,"year":2022,"publisher":"consciousness and cognition","publisherUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2022.103314","downloadUrl":null,"podcast":null},{"title":"\"Satisfaction\" in Search","summaryPath":"/publications/satisfaction-in-search-expectations-predict-errors","reportNumber":null,"year":2019,"publisher":"attention perception and psychophysics","publisherUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-019-01790-9","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333433720_Satisfaction_in_Search_Individuals'_Own_Search_Expectations_Predict_Their_Errors_in_Multiple-Target_Search","podcast":null},{"title":"What to Where","summaryPath":"/publications/what-to-where-right-attention-set-wrong-location","reportNumber":null,"year":2019,"publisher":"perception","publisherUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0301006619854302","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333224436_What_to_Where_The_Right_Attention_Set_for_the_Wrong_Location","podcast":null},{"title":"Semantic Associations Do Not Modulate the Visual Awareness of Objects","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":null,"year":2019,"publisher":"the quarterly journal of experimental psychology","publisherUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021818811411","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328481618_Semantic_associations_do_not_modulate_the_visual_awareness_of_objects","podcast":null},{"title":"Predictors of Attitudes Towards Autonomous Vehicles","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":null,"year":2018,"publisher":"frontiers in psychology","publisherUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02589","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329806164_Predictors_of_Attitudes_Toward_Autonomous_Vehicles_The_Roles_of_Age_Gender_Prior_Knowledge_and_Personality","podcast":null},{"title":"Attention Capture, Processing Speed, and Inattentional Blindness","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":null,"year":2018,"publisher":"acta psychologica","publisherUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.07.005","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326356485_Attention_Capture_Processing_Speed_and_Inattentional_Blindness","podcast":null},{"title":"Satisfaction in Motion","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":null,"year":2018,"publisher":"psychonomic bulletin and review","publisherUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1300-1","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316441769_Satisfaction_in_motion_Subsequent_search_misses_are_more_likely_in_moving_search_displays","podcast":null},{"title":"The Costs (or Benefits) Associated with Attended Objects Do Little to Influence Inattentional Blindness","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":null,"year":2017,"publisher":"acta psychologica","publisherUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.12.012","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311799778_The_costs_or_benefits_associated_with_attended_objects_do_little_to_influence_inattentional_blindness","podcast":null},{"title":"Clarifying the Role of Target Similarity, Task Relevance and Feature-Based Suppression During Sustained Inattentional Blindness","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":null,"year":2016,"publisher":"journal of vision","publisherUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1167/16.15.13","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311734195_Clarifying_the_role_of_target_similarity_task_relevance_and_feature-based_suppression_during_sustained_inattentional_blindness","podcast":null},{"title":"Using Mechanical Turk to Assess the Effects of Age and Spatial Proximity on Inattentional Blindness","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":null,"year":2015,"publisher":"collabra","publisherUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.26","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282425519_Using_Mechanical_Turk_to_Assess_the_Effects_of_Age_and_Spatial_Proximity_on_Inattentional_Blindness","podcast":null},{"title":"The Attentional Cost of Receiving a Cell Phone Notification","summaryPath":"/publications/attentional-cost-cell-phone-notification","reportNumber":null,"year":2015,"publisher":"journal of experimental psychology: human perception and performance","publisherUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000100","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279457726_The_Attentional_Cost_of_Receiving_a_Cell_Phone_Notification","podcast":"https://open.spotify.com/episode/72ClqMYneG8qwNiIpc9BnS?si=0J6oZaOiSDmc_DIzC_wxRQ"},{"title":"Is the Effect of Aerobic Exercise on Cognition a Placebo Effect?","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":null,"year":2014,"publisher":"PLOS ONE","publisherUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0109557","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266625747_Is_the_Effect_of_Aerobic_Exercise_on_Cognition_a_Placebo_Effect","podcast":null},{"title":"The Pervasive Problem with Placebos in Psychology","summaryPath":"/publications/placebos-active-control-groups-expectations","reportNumber":null,"year":2013,"publisher":"perspectives on psychological science","publisherUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691613491271","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258179760_The_Pervasive_Problem_With_Placebos_in_Psychology_Why_Active_Control_Groups_Are_Not_Sufficient_to_Rule_Out_Placebo_Effects","podcast":null},{"title":"Improving the Safety of Aging Road Users","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":null,"year":2013,"publisher":"gerontology","publisherUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000354212","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256289389_Improving_the_Safety_of_Aging_Road_Users_A_Mini-Review","podcast":null},{"title":"Age Effects on Inattentional Blindness","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":null,"year":2016,"publisher":"Springer International Publishing","publisherUrl":null,"downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304189658_Age_Effects_on_Inattentional_Blindness_Implications_for_Driving","podcast":null},{"title":"Ensuring the Safety and Accessibility of Transportation for an Aging Population","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":null,"year":2016,"publisher":"Springer International Publishing","publisherUrl":null,"downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304189962_Ensuring_the_Safety_and_Accessibility_of_Transportation_for_an_Aging_Population","podcast":null},{"title":"Active Listening Learning Resource","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":"Research Product 2023-04","year":2023,"publisher":"U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences","publisherUrl":"https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD1189571","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/394451659_Active_Listening_Learning_Resource_Self-Paced_Learning_Modules_to_Improve_Your_Ability_to_Communicate_Effectively","podcast":null},{"title":"Strategies for Stimulating Discussion Handbook","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":"Research Product 2019-02","year":2019,"publisher":"U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences","publisherUrl":"https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD1067297","downloadUrl":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/394451664_Strategies_for_Stimulating_Discussion","podcast":null},{"title":"Using AI to Assist Commanders with Complex Decision-Making","summaryPath":null,"reportNumber":null,"year":2018,"publisher":"Author Published","publisherUrl":null,"downloadUrl":null,"podcast":null}]}},"pageContext":{"id":"ab04547a-68c4-549a-85dc-889a4c97ec80","slug":"what-to-where-right-attention-set-wrong-location","markdownPath":"/publications/what-to-where-right-attention-set-wrong-location/index.md","seo":{"type":"article","title":"What to Where: The Right Attention Set for the Wrong Location","description":"Four online inattentional-blindness experiments showed that feature-based attention sets strongly shaped noticing within an attended region but had weaker or absent effects beyond it.","image":"/static/3db7ef1eedbd02fc20faa401e4e9d21c/what-to-where-inattentional-blindness-task.png","imageAlt":"Preview image for What to Where: The Right Attention Set for the Wrong Location","imageWidth":950,"imageHeight":635}}}, "staticQueryHashes": ["3600524341"]}