Dampure, J. , Rouet, J. , Ros, C. & Vibert, N.
CeRCA, CNRS - Université de Poitiers, Poitiers, France
Two experiments were designed to investigate whether attentional sensitization of task-congruent processing pathways modulated both controlled and automatic processes during visual search for words (attentional sensitization model, Kiefer & Martens, 2010). According to visual search models, item processing through the parafoveal/peripheral visual field would be automatic, whereas full item identification would require foveal vision. In Experiment 1, participants searched for given target words in displays where semantically-related (SW), orthogaphically-similar (OW) or unrelated words (UW) were present. In Experiment 2, other participants searched for the same words within the same displays, but the target words were only defined by their categories. Eye movements were recorded with a Tobii® eyetracker. In Experiment 1, OW were fixated more often and for longer durations than UW. SW attracted participants’ gaze but were not fixated for longer durations. Detailed analyses demonstrated that the parafoveal/peripheral vision of SW attracted gaze only if another SW was currently fixated, whereas OW attracted participants’ gaze unconditionally. In Experiment 2, both OW and SW attracted participants’ gaze and were fixated for longer durations than UW, but none of them attracted gaze unconditionally. These results argue for a top-down control of both controlled and automatic processes of visual search by task-set.