A primitive memory system for the deployment of transient attention

Abstract

When transient attention is summoned by the sudden appearance of a large cue, it can be deployed to a small portion of the cue where a target appeared on previous trials (Kristjánsson, Mackeben, & Nakayama, 2001). This result runs counter to the view that transient, or exogenous, attention is summoned automatically and indiscriminately to abruptly appearing stimuli. To further characterize the short-term learning mediating this phenomenon, we report the following results. (1) When there was a consistent relationship between a small identifying portion of the cue and the target, learning occurred rapidly. Thus, transient attention can be summoned to a distinctively colored or distinctively shaped portion of the cue as a consequence of repeated pairing (Experiments 1 and 2). (2) When there was a consistent relation between a given position on the object and its overall color or shape, no learning occurred (Experiments 3 and 4). Thus, transient attention cannot learn a complex relation between target position and shape or color. (3) We confirmed the fast object-centered learning of position shown in Kristjánsson et al. (2001). (4) Explicit knowledge of the cue-target relationship had no effect on the performance of the task. The results provide evidence for the existence of a primitive object-centered learning mechanism beneficial for the rapid deployment of transient attention. The possible role of such a mechanism in the maintenance of representations of the visual environment is discussed.