The reward history of a stimulus can yield strong attentional selection biases. Indeed, attentional capture can be triggered by previously rewarded items which are neither salient nor relevant for the ongoing task, even when selection is clearly counter-productive to actually obtain the reward outcome. Therefore, value-driven attentional capture (VDAC) has been argued to be an automatic attention mechanism. Our study aimed at putting the VDAC automaticity directly to the test. For this purpose, the Load Theory offers a comprehensive framework where distraction is observed under low but not high perceptual load condition. Nevertheless, if VDAC is indeed automatic, distraction by reward-stimuli should be observed on both perceptual load conditions. We used a feature vs. conjunction discrimination of a go/no-go cue to manipulate perceptual load. As expected, our results revealed that perceptual load decreased interference produced by low-reward distractor. However, this effect was not significant for high-reward distractor, giving support to VDAC automaticity. We discussed our results in light of the Load Theory literature and we strongly encourage to consider reward history along with perceptual load in determining attentional capture.

刺激的奖励历史可以产生强烈的注意力选择偏见。确实，注意力吸引可以由先前奖励的项目触发，这些项目与正在进行的任务既不显着也不相关，即使选择显然不利于实际获得奖励结果。因此，价值驱动的注意捕获（VDAC）被认为是一种自动注意机制。我们的研究旨在将VDAC自动化直接进行测试。为此，“载荷理论”提供了一个综合的框架，可以在低但不高的感知载荷条件下观察到注意力分散。但是，如果VDAC确实是自动的，则应在两种感性负载条件下观察到奖励激励引起的注意力分散。我们使用了通过/不通过提示的特征对比联合判断来操纵知觉负载。正如预期的那样，我们的研究结果表明，知觉负载减少了低回报干扰物产生的干扰。但是，这种效果对于高回报的注意力分散器并不重要，从而支持了VDAC的自动化。我们根据负载理论文献讨论了我们的结果，我们强烈建议在确定注意力捕获时考虑奖励历史和感知负载。