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Previously seen and expected stimuli elicit surprise in the context of visual search

Overview of attention for article published in Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, January 2016
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  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (55th percentile)

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1 X user
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1 peer review site

Citations

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3 Dimensions

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23 Mendeley
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Title
Previously seen and expected stimuli elicit surprise in the context of visual search
Published in
Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, January 2016
DOI 10.3758/s13414-015-1052-9
Pubmed ID
Authors

James D. Retell, Stefanie I. Becker, Roger W. Remington

Abstract

In the context of visual search, surprise is the phenomenon by which a previously unseen and unexpected stimulus exogenously attracts spatial attention. Capture by such a stimulus occurs, by definition, independent of task goals and is thought to be dependent on the extent to which the stimulus deviates from expectations. However, the relative contributions of prior-exposure and explicit knowledge of an unexpected event to the surprise response have not yet been systematically investigated. Here observers searched for a specific color while ignoring irrelevant cues of different colors presented prior to the target display. After a brief familiarization period, we presented an irrelevant motion cue to elicit surprise. Across conditions we varied prior exposure to the motion stimulus - seen versus unseen - and top-down expectations of occurrence - expected versus unexpected - to assess the extent to which each of these factors contributes to surprise. We found no attenuation of the surprise response when observers were pre-exposed to the motion cue and or had explicit knowledge of its occurrence. Our results show that it is neither sufficient nor necessary that a stimulus be new and unannounced to elicit surprise and suggest that the expectations that determine the surprise response are highly context specific.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profile of 1 X user who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 23 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 1 4%
Australia 1 4%
Unknown 21 91%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 7 30%
Student > Ph. D. Student 5 22%
Student > Bachelor 3 13%
Professor > Associate Professor 2 9%
Unspecified 1 4%
Other 3 13%
Unknown 2 9%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 14 61%
Neuroscience 2 9%
Linguistics 1 4%
Unspecified 1 4%
Engineering 1 4%
Other 0 0%
Unknown 4 17%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 13 September 2016.
All research outputs
#15,115,997
of 24,003,070 outputs
Outputs from Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics
#696
of 1,773 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#213,493
of 401,143 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics
#17
of 40 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,003,070 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 34th percentile – i.e., 34% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,773 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.6. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 55% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 401,143 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 44th percentile – i.e., 44% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 40 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 55% of its contemporaries.