Gotta Capture 'Em All: How Appealing Distractors Capture Visual Attention

Everyday our attention is vulnerable to distractions that can capture our attention and hinder our performance. Many factors determine whether a distractor will capture attention, including how appealing and meaningful it is to the observer. The current research showed that participants were slower to identify a target letter in the presence of a neutral distractor as compared to an appealing distractor (Experiment 1). However, this effect reversed when neutral distractors appeared more frequently than appealing distractors (Experiment 2). Furthermore, slower performances reflected a covert capture of attention rather than an inability to disengage attention from distractors (Experiments 3 & 4). Lastly, these experiments showed that appeal and meaning are not easily disassociated characteristics and may operate in conjunction with frequency to determine whether a distractor will capture our attention.