Exploration of the Time Course of Attention Sets for Object Features

We sometimes fail to notice objects and events in our environment because our attention is directed elsewhere—a phenomenon called inattentional blindness. Our attentional set—the features we prioritize in our environment—plays a large role in determining what we notice. For example, adopting an attentional set for green makes green objects more likely to capture attention. Although a large body of research has explored the types of attentional sets we may adopt, few have explored the time course of attentional sets. And, out of these, none have explored how experience with a no-longer useful attentional set can impact the activation of new attentional sets. In two experiments, I show that a minimal amount of experience with an attentional set can cause that set to remain active past the point when it is no longer useful: Noticing of an unexpected object was higher when its color matched the color of previous targets, but new distractors, than when its color matched the color of objects that were always distractors. Furthermore, noticing was equivalent between times when the unexpected object's color matched the color of objects that were previous distractors, but new targets, and times when its color matched the color of objects that were always targets. Overall, this finding suggests that past experience with an attentional set can impact the time it takes to adopt a new attentional set.