Dissociations of Personally Significant and Task-Relevant Distractors Inside and Outside the Focus of Attention: A Combined Behavioral and Psychophysiological Study.

• DOI: 10.1037/0096-3445.132.4.512
• Publication Date: 2003-11-25T20:33:36Z
• Authors: Nurit Gronau; Asher Cohen; Gershon Ben-Shakhar
• Keywords: Stroop effect

Studies of attentional capture by personally significant stimuli have reached inconsistent results, possibly because improper control the participants' attention. In present study, authors controlled visual attention using a Stroop-like task. Participants responded to central color and ignored word presented either centrally (i.e., at focus attention) or peripherally outside attention). Central words led slower reaction times larger orienting responses for items than neutral items. These effects largely disappeared when appeared in peripheral location. The interfered with performance they were relevant task demands. results indicate that there is fundamental difference between task-relevant words: former even peripherally, whereas latter do not.