Probability cueing induced bias does not modulate attention-capture by brief abrupt-onset cues

Abstract

Salient objects, such as abrupt-onsets, can capture attention even when nearly invisible. While the influence of explicit factors on such capture (e.g., task-goals) has been extensively investigated, the role of implicit control settings (e.g., probability cueing) is relatively unknown. We examined whether probability cueing affects attentional capture by masked onset cues. The target was more likely to appear on one hemifield of the display than the other. Saccade latencies indicated that capture by masked cues was identical across high and low-probability hemifields (Experiment 1). The same cues, when unmasked, captured attention more when presented in the high-probability hemifield (Experiment 2). We argue that capture by masked cues is not sensitive to implicitly learned biases, such as probability cueing. These findings support theories proposing that attentional control settings influence masked visual orienting only when set up explicitly.