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Associative knowledge controls deployment of visual selective attention

Nature Neuroscience volume 6, pages 182–189 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

According to some models of visual selective attention, objects in a scene activate corresponding neural representations, which compete for perceptual awareness and motor behavior. During a visual search for a target object, top-down control exerted by working memory representations of the target's defining properties resolves competition in favor of the target. These models, however, ignore the existence of associative links among object representations. Here we show that such associations can strongly influence deployment of attention in humans. In the context of visual search, objects associated with the target were both recalled more often and recognized more accurately than unrelated distractors. Notably, both target and associated objects competitively weakened recognition of unrelated distractors and slowed responses to a luminance probe. Moreover, in a speeded search protocol, associated objects rendered search both slower and less accurate. Finally, the first saccades after onset of the stimulus array were more often directed toward associated than control items.

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Figure 1: Verbal report experiment.
Figure 2: One exemplar of all object pairs used in the five experiments.
Figure 3: Forced-choice recency judgement experiment.
Figure 4: Rapid-presentation visual search experiment.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support for this project was provided by grants to L.C. from the Human Frontier Science Program, the McDonnell-Pew Foundation, the Italian Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica (MURST) and the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR). E.M. was supported by a Marie Curie Fellowship of the European Community programme “Improving Human Research Potential and the Socio-economic Knowledge Base” under contract number HPMFCT-2000-00562. We thank J. Duncan and M. Peterson for helpful comments on preliminary versions of this paper and M. Veronese for preparing the figures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurological and Vision Sciences, Section of Physiology, University of Verona, Strada Le Grazie 8, Verona, 37134, Italy

    Elisabeth Moores, Liana Laiti & Leonardo Chelazzi

  2. Neurosciences Research Institute, Aston University, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK

    Elisabeth Moores

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  1. Elisabeth Moores
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  2. Liana Laiti
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  3. Leonardo Chelazzi
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Correspondence to Leonardo Chelazzi.

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Moores, E., Laiti, L. & Chelazzi, L. Associative knowledge controls deployment of visual selective attention. Nat Neurosci 6, 182–189 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn996

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