Asymmetries in distractibility: left distractors improve reaction time performance
Thomas, Nicole A., and Nicholls, Michael E.R. (2018) Asymmetries in distractibility: left distractors improve reaction time performance. Scientific Reports, 8.
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Abstract
Research using the irrelevant-distractor paradigm shows perceptual load influences distractibility, such that distractors are more likely to be processed and decrease reaction times during low perceptual load. In contrast, under high load, attentional resources are limited, and the likelihood of distractibility is decreased. We manipulated distractor placement to determine whether location differentially influenced distractibility. During low load, reaction times were increased equally for all distractor locations. Under high load, left distractors speeded reaction times significantly more than right distractors. We suggest two potential explanations: (1) the central focus of attention was sufficiently large to encapsulate both the distractor and the visual array during low perceptual load, leading to increased distraction—during high load, attention was split across the two visual stimuli, allowing the distractors and array to be processed independently; (2) superior executive control for stimuli in the left visual field allowed participants to 'catch and release' left distractors more efficiently, ultimately decreasing distraction and providing a performance benefit. Our findings represent an intriguing development in relation to visual asymmetries in distractibility.
| Item ID: | 53360 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 2045-2322 |
| Additional Information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Funders: | Australian Research Council (ARC) |
| Projects and Grants: | ARC DE150101108 |
| Date Deposited: | 01 May 2018 03:36 |
| FoR Codes: | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology > 520401 Cognition @ 50% 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology > 520404 Memory and attention @ 50% |
| SEO Codes: | 97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970117 Expanding Knowledge in Psychology and Cognitive Sciences @ 100% |
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