Evaluative distractors modulate attentional disengagement: People would rather stay longer on rewards

Abstract

Attentional disengagement is of great significance to individuals adapting to their environment who can benefit from disregarding the attraction of salient and task-irrelevant objects. Previous studies have suggested that, in addition to causing greater financial loss compared with neutral distractors, reward distractors hold attention longer than neutral distractors. However, few studies have directly compared the attentional disengagement differences between reward-associated and loss- or punishment-associated stimuli. In the current study, we used different color singleton stimuli tied to reward or punishment outcomes; the stimuli were present in the center of the screen. Participants were required to respond to a line within the target at a peripheral location. The results showed that the response to the target was slower when the central distractor was associated with a reward than with punishment. This finding reflects that, although participants understand that reward-associated and punishment-associated stimuli have an equal opportunity for the same economic benefit, they still take longer to disengage from a reward distractor compared with a punishment distractor.

Figure 1.

Results from Experiment 1. (A) Sample trial sequences for the visual search. Participants were asked to judge the orientation of the line within the targets. The blue singleton at the central location for the experiment group signaled reward, and the orange singleton signaled punishment. The gray circle at the fixation location represents no-distractor trials. (B) Response accuracy and response times for correct responses in the control group. (C) Response accuracy and response times for correct responses in the experimental group. Error bars represent within-subject standard errors of the mean (***p < 0.001).

Figure 2.

Results from Experiment 2. (A) Sample trial sequences for the visual search. Participants were asked to judge the orientation of the lines within the targets. Half of the trials were central-target trials, and the other half of the trials were central-distractor trials. The blue singleton at the central location signaled reward, and the orange singleton signaled punishment. The gray circle at the fixation location represents no-distractor trials. (B) Response accuracy and response times for correct responses. Error bars represent within-subject standard errors of the mean (*p < 0.05; ***p < 0.001).