Eye-specific attentional bias driven by selection history

Abstract

Attention helps in selection among competing stimuli, but attentional selection also biases subsequent information processing as a prior experience. Previous studies have demonstrated that intertrial repetition of target features or locations facilitates perceptual processing as selection history guides attention. In the current study, we found that eye selection history in binocular rivalry induces eye-specific attentional bias. In four experiments, participants responded to the target presented at one of the locations on either eye. The results showed that the target was detected faster when presented to the same eye as in the previous trial under binocular rivalry. However, the effect of eye repetition was not observed when the interocular conflict was reduced by presenting stimuli to only one eye on each trial. Our result indicates that eye selection history can affect eye dominance during binocular rivalry as attention amplifies selected information among competing inputs. These findings suggest that prior experience of attentional deployment modulates subsequent information processing owing to the residual effect of attentional amplification.