The spider does not always win the fight for attention: Disengagement from threat is modulated by goal set

Stimulus-driven preferential attention to threat can be modulated by goal-driven attention. However, it remains unclear how this goal-driven modulation affects specific attentional components implied in threat interference. We hypothesise that goal-driven modulation most strongly impacts delayed dis...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Vromen, J., Lipp, Ottmar, Remington, R.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Routledge 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8098
_version_ 1848745556683259904
author Vromen, J.
Lipp, Ottmar
Remington, R.
author_facet Vromen, J.
Lipp, Ottmar
Remington, R.
author_sort Vromen, J.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Stimulus-driven preferential attention to threat can be modulated by goal-driven attention. However, it remains unclear how this goal-driven modulation affects specific attentional components implied in threat interference. We hypothesise that goal-driven modulation most strongly impacts delayed disengagement from threat. A spatial cueing task was used that disentangles delayed disengagement from attentional capture by tightly manipulating the locus of attention at the time of target onset. Different top-down goals were induced by instructing participants to identify bird/fish targets (Experiment 1) or spider/cat targets (Experiment 2) among animal non-targets. Delayed disengagement from a non-target spider was observed only when the spider was part of the target set, not when it was task-irrelevant. This corroborates evidence that threat stimuli do not necessarily override goal-driven attentional control and that extended processing of threatening distractors is not obligatory.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T06:19:14Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-8098
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T06:19:14Z
publishDate 2014
publisher Routledge
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-80982017-09-13T14:37:52Z The spider does not always win the fight for attention: Disengagement from threat is modulated by goal set Vromen, J. Lipp, Ottmar Remington, R. Stimulus-driven preferential attention to threat can be modulated by goal-driven attention. However, it remains unclear how this goal-driven modulation affects specific attentional components implied in threat interference. We hypothesise that goal-driven modulation most strongly impacts delayed disengagement from threat. A spatial cueing task was used that disentangles delayed disengagement from attentional capture by tightly manipulating the locus of attention at the time of target onset. Different top-down goals were induced by instructing participants to identify bird/fish targets (Experiment 1) or spider/cat targets (Experiment 2) among animal non-targets. Delayed disengagement from a non-target spider was observed only when the spider was part of the target set, not when it was task-irrelevant. This corroborates evidence that threat stimuli do not necessarily override goal-driven attentional control and that extended processing of threatening distractors is not obligatory. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8098 10.1080/02699931.2014.969198 Routledge fulltext
spellingShingle Vromen, J.
Lipp, Ottmar
Remington, R.
The spider does not always win the fight for attention: Disengagement from threat is modulated by goal set
title The spider does not always win the fight for attention: Disengagement from threat is modulated by goal set
title_full The spider does not always win the fight for attention: Disengagement from threat is modulated by goal set
title_fullStr The spider does not always win the fight for attention: Disengagement from threat is modulated by goal set
title_full_unstemmed The spider does not always win the fight for attention: Disengagement from threat is modulated by goal set
title_short The spider does not always win the fight for attention: Disengagement from threat is modulated by goal set
title_sort spider does not always win the fight for attention: disengagement from threat is modulated by goal set
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8098