Abrupt visual onsets and selective attention: Evidence from visual search.

TLDR

The authors hypothesized that an abrupt onset in a visual display would capture visual attention, giving that item a processing advantage over items lacking an abrupt leading edge. They assessed this by presenting displays where one item had an abrupt onset while others were introduced by gradually removing line segments, and designed a second experiment to rule out sensory or perceptual explanations. Experiment 1 confirmed that abrupt onsets capture attention, and Experiment 3 replicated this effect and showed that gradual removal is unnecessary, supporting theories that emphasize temporal discontinuity in attention.

Abstract

The effect of temporal discontinuity on visual search was assessed by presenting a display in which one item had an abrupt onset, while other items were introduced by gradually removing line segments that camouflaged them. We hypothesized that an abrupt onset in a visual display would capture visual attention, giving this item a processing advantage over items lacking an abrupt leading edge. This prediction was confirmed in Experiment 1. We designed a second experiment to ensure that this finding was due to attentional factors rather than to sensory or perceptual ones. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 1 and demonstrated that the procedure used to avoid abrupt onset--camouflage removal--did not require a gradual waveform. Implications of these findings for theories of attention are discussed.