Is predictability salient? A study of attentional capture by auditory patterns
In this series of behavioural and electroencephalography (EEG) experiments, we investigate the extent to which repeating patterns of sounds capture attention. Work in the visual domain has revealed attentional capture by statistically predictable stimuli, consistent with predictive coding accounts w...
Saved in:
Published in | Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences Vol. 372; no. 1714; p. 20160105 |
---|---|
Main Authors | , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
The Royal Society
19.02.2017
The Royal Society Publishing |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
Cover
Loading…
Summary: | In this series of behavioural and electroencephalography (EEG) experiments, we investigate the extent to which repeating patterns of sounds capture attention. Work in the visual domain has revealed attentional capture by statistically predictable stimuli, consistent with predictive coding accounts which suggest that attention is drawn to sensory regularities. Here, stimuli comprised rapid sequences of tone pips, arranged in regular (REG) or random (RAND) patterns. EEG data demonstrate that the brain rapidly recognizes predictable patterns manifested as a rapid increase in responses to REG relative to RAND sequences. This increase is reminiscent of the increase in gain on neural responses to attended stimuli often seen in the neuroimaging literature, and thus consistent with the hypothesis that predictable sequences draw attention. To study potential attentional capture by auditory regularities, we used REG and RAND sequences in two different behavioural tasks designed to reveal effects of attentional capture by regularity. Overall, the pattern of results suggests that regularity does not capture attention.
This article is part of the themed issue ‘Auditory and visual scene analysis’. |
---|---|
Bibliography: | Theme issue ‘Auditory and visual scene analysis’ compiled and edited by Hirohito M. Kondo, Jun-Ichiro Kawahara, Anouk M. van Loon and Brian C.J. Moore ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 These authors contributed equally to this study. Electronic supplementary material is available online at https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3583490. One contribution of 15 to a theme issue ‘Auditory and visual scene analysis’. |
ISSN: | 0962-8436 1471-2970 |
DOI: | 10.1098/rstb.2016.0105 |