Previous research suggests that observers can suppress salient-but-irrelevant stimuli in a top-down manner. However, one question left unresolved is whether such suppression is, in fact, solely due to distractor-feature suppression or whether it instead also reflects some degree of target-feature enhancement. The present study (N = 60) addressed this issue. On search trials (70% of trials), participants searched for a shape target when an irrelevant color singleton was either present or absent; performance was better when a color singleton was present. On interleaved probe trials (30% of trials), participants searched for a letter target. Responses were faster for the letter on a target-colored item than on a neutral-colored item, whereas responses were slower for the letter on a distractor-colored item than on a neutral-colored item. The results demonstrate that target-feature enhancement and distractor-feature suppression contribute to attentional guidance independently; enhancement and suppression flexibly guide attention as the occasion demands.

中文翻译：

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增强抑制灵活引导注意力

先前的研究表明，观察者可以以自上而下的方式抑制显着但不相关的刺激。然而，一个悬而未决的问题是，这种抑制实际上是否仅仅是由于干扰特征抑制，或者它是否也反映了某种程度的目标特征增强。本研究（N = 60）解决了这个问题。在搜索试验中（70% 的试验），参与者在存在或不存在不相关的颜色单色时搜索形状目标；当存在颜色单例时，性能会更好。在交错探测试验中（占试验的 30%），参与者搜索字母目标。对目标色项目的字母的反应比对中性色项目的反应快，而对干扰色项目的字母的反应比对中性色项目的反应慢。结果表明，目标特征增强和干扰特征抑制独立地有助于注意力引导；增强和抑制根据场合需要灵活引导注意力。