In visual search attention can be directed towards items matching top-down goals, but this must compete with factors such as salience that can capture attention. However, under some circumstances it appears that attention can avoid known distractor features. Chang and Egeth (Psychological Science, 30 (12), 1724–1732, 2019) found that such inhibitory effects reflect a combination of distractor-feature suppression and target-feature enhancement. In the present study (N = 48), we extend these findings by revealing that suppression and enhancement effects guide overt attention. On search trials (75% of trials) participants searched for a diamond shape among several other shapes. On half of the search trials all objects were the same colour (e.g., green) and on the other half of the search trials one of the non-target shapes appeared in a different colour (e.g., red). On interleaved probe trials (25% of trials), subjects were presented with four ovals. One of the ovals was in either the colour of the target or the colour of the distractor from the search trials. The other three ovals were on neutral colours. Critically, we found that attention was overtly captured by target colours and avoided distractor colours when they were viewed in a background of neutral colours. In addition, we provided a time course of attentional control. Within visual search tasks we observed inhibition aiding early attentional effects, indexed by the time it took gaze to first reach the target, as well as later decision-making processes indexed by the time for a decision to be made once the target as found.

在视觉搜索中，注意力可以指向匹配自上而下目标的项目，但这必须与能够吸引注意力的显着性等因素竞争。然而，在某些情况下，注意力似乎可以避免已知的干扰特征。Chang 和 Egeth (Psychological Science, 30 (12), 1724–1732, 2019) 发现这种抑制作用反映了干扰物特征抑制和目标特征增强的结合。在本研究中（N= 48），我们通过揭示抑制和增强效应引导公开注意力来扩展这些发现。在搜索试验（75% 的试验）中，参与者在其他几种形状中搜索了一种钻石形状。在一半的搜索试验中，所有对象都是相同的颜色（例如，绿色），而在另一半的搜索试验中，一个非目标形状以不同的颜色出现（例如，红色）。在交错探测试验（25% 的试验）中，受试者被呈现四个椭圆形。其中一个椭圆的颜色要么是目标的颜色，要么是搜索试验中干扰物的颜色。其他三个椭圆形是中性色。至关重要的是，我们发现在中性色背景中观看目标颜色时，注意力会被目标颜色明显地吸引，并避免干扰颜色。此外，我们提供了注意力控制的时间过程。在视觉搜索任务中，我们观察到抑制有助于早期注意效果，以凝视第一次到达目标的时间为索引，以及后来的决策过程以找到目标后做出决定的时间为索引。