Schedule of Events | Symposia

Target Enhancement Is Not Simply One Process: Different Factors for Explicit Cueing Effects and Statistical Learning Effects on Attention

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 29, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Natalia Khodayari¹ (nkhodayari@jhu.edu), Howard Egeth¹, Susan Courtney¹; ¹Johns Hopkins University

It is unclear the extent to which the neural mechanisms of attention underlying target enhancement by top-down explicit cueing and by statistical learning are the same. In previous experiments, we examined the sensitivity to state factors of mechanisms of explicit cueing and statistical learning. In those experiments, a six-item visual array was briefly presented. During explicit cueing blocks, a letter cue informed participants of the likely target location. During statistical learning blocks, a ready signal was presented without target information, and the target was most likely to appear in one of six locations. The results showed a contrast: whereas attention driven by explicit cueing is trait-like and more stable in the face of state changes, attention driven by statistical learning is more sensitive to state changes across days. To verify replicability of these results, we conducted a within-subjects test-retest study, where each participant (N = 85) completed both tasks in each of two sessions, 3-8 days apart. We replicated our original findings, showing that individual difference measures of target cueing (invalid – valid target cue) and target frequency (infrequent – frequent target location) yielded internally-reliable measures within each session. This replicates our findings that both tasks yield stable, trait-like, behaviors within each session. Measures for statistical learning, however, did not correlate across sessions, suggesting these measures are reliable within days but not across days (i.e., they are sensitive to long-term changes). These results demonstrate a clear contrast between the factors underlying mechanisms of attention for top-down and statistical attentional control.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Spatial