Uniqueness of abrupt visual onset in capturing attention

Experiments are reported investigating whether abrupt onset is simply one member of a large class of stimulus characteristics, all of which are capable of capturing attention, and whether these also could elicit shifts of attention.

Abstract

Yantis and Jonides (1984) demonstrated that the detection of a target in visual search was markedly enhanced when the target was presented as an abruptly onset character embedded among other characters whose presentation was not characterized by abrupt onset. This effect was attributed to a shift of attention caused by abrupt onset. In the present article, we report experiments investigating whether abrupt onset is simply one member of a large class of stimulus characteristics, all of which are capable of capturing attention. To test this possibility, we compared abrupt onset with differences in stimulus luminance and hue to determine whether these also could elicit shifts of attention. They could not.