Reuss, H. , Kiesel, A. , Pohl, C. & Kunde, W.
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Institute of Psychology III
Laterally presented masked spatial cues have been shown to capture attention only when they fit current top-down settings (top-down contingent capture). We investigated if the impact of centrally presented masked cues likewise depends on one’s intentions. To this end, we conducted two spatial cuing experiments. In both experiments, a central arrow cue that was either masked or visible (varied randomly on a trial-by-trial basis) was presented in each trial, pointing to the left or to the right. The target stimulus then appeared either at the cued or at the non-cued location. Participants responded to the identity of the target. In Experiment 1, the cues were not predictive of the target’s location. With visible cues, participants responded faster after valid than after invalid cues. There was no validity effect, however, with masked cues. In Experiment 2, the cues predicted the actual target location in 80% of the trials. Here, participants responded faster after valid than after invalid cues both with visible and with masked cues. In contrast to Experiment 1, masked cues impacted on attention, presumably because participants intended to use the cues due to their higher validity. Masked arrow cues therefore impact on attention in a top-down contingent way.