The majority of previous studies on the value modulation of attention have shown that the magnitude of value-driven attentional bias correlates with the strength of reward association. However, relatively little is known about how uncertainty affects value-based attentional bias. We investigated whether attentional capture by previously rewarded stimuli is modulated by the uncertainty of the learned value without the influence of the strength of reward association. Participants were instructed to identify the line orientation in the target color circle. Importantly, each target color was associated with a different level of uncertainty by tuning the variation in reward delivery (Experiment 1) or reward magnitude (Experiment 2). Attentional interference for uncertainty-related distractors was greater than that for certainty distractors in Experiments 1 and 2. In addition, uncertainty-induced attentional bias disappeared earlier than attentional bias for certainty. The study demonstrated that uncertainty modulates value-based attentional capture in terms of strength and persistence, even when the effect of expected value remains constant.

以往关于注意力的价值调制的大多数研究表明，价值驱动的注意力偏差的大小与奖励联想的强度相关。但是，关于不确定性如何影响基于价值的注意偏见的了解还很少。我们调查了先前奖励刺激引起的注意捕获是否受到学习价值的不确定性的调节，而不受奖励关联强度的影响。指示参与者确定目标色环中的线方向。重要的是，通过调整奖励交付（实验1）或奖励幅度（实验2）的变化，每种目标颜色都具有不同程度的不确定性。在实验1和2中，与不确定性相关的干扰因素的注意干扰大于确定性干扰因素。此外，不确定性引起的注意偏见比确定性注意偏见更早消失。该研究表明，即使期望值的影响保持恒定，不确定性也会根据强度和持久性来调节基于值的注意力捕获。