Individual differences in attention capture, control, and working memory.

Abstract

Attention capture is an important mechanism that can be important for alerting one to danger, but other times, it is expedient to block distracting information from intrusion. In this experiment, we used an additional singleton paradigm to measure attention capture. Rather than solely using the subtraction method to measure the capture effect, we incorporated eye tracking to provide potentially more reliable measures of overt attention. We calculated multiple dependent variables based on the scan path and estimated a capture effect for each participant using linear mixed effects modeling, which yielded a more reliable measure than the subtraction method. The eye-tracking measures were in fact more reliable than other reaction time indicators of capture. Surprisingly, the reaction time effect was not correlated with dwell time on the distractor, distraction probability, or probability of the first saccade landing on the distractor, but the more reliable mixed model capture effect correlated with dwell time. Finally, we measured individual differences in working memory capacity and attention control with an independent set of measures. Neither working memory capacity nor attention control correlated with either reaction time capture effect, but dwell time on the distractor and verification time were negatively correlated with both. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).