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Delaying reward feedback does not increase the influence of information on attentional priority in visual search.

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Τίτλος: Delaying reward feedback does not increase the influence of information on attentional priority in visual search.
Συγγραφείς: Chow JYL; School of Psychology, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Electronic address: julie.chow@unsw.edu.au., Garner KG; School of Psychology, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Electronic address: kelly.grace.garner@unsw.edu.au., Pearson D; School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Electronic address: daniel.pearson@sydney.edu.au., Theeuwes J; Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Institute of Brain and Behaviour Amsterdam (iBBA), the Netherlands; William James Center for Research, ISPA-Instituto Universitario, Lisbon, Portugal. Electronic address: j.theeuwes@vu.nl., Le Pelley ME; School of Psychology, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Electronic address: m.lepelley@unsw.edu.au.
Πηγή: Cognition [Cognition] 2026 Jun; Vol. 271, pp. 106447. Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Jan 16.
Τύπος έκδοσης: Journal Article
Γλώσσα: English
Στοιχεία περιοδικού: Publisher: Elsevier Country of Publication: Netherlands NLM ID: 0367541 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1873-7838 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00100277 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Cognition Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s): Publication: Amsterdam : Elsevier
Original Publication: Hague, Mouton.
Ιατρικοί όροι (MeSH): Visual Perception*/physiology , Information Seeking Behavior*/physiology , Uncertainty*, Attention ; Humans ; Young Adult
Περίληψη: Demonstrations of information-seeking behaviour suggest that attention often acts in an exploitative way, prioritising stimuli that provide diagnostic information about upcoming events over stimuli associated with uncertainty. However, recent evidence from studies of attentional capture in visual search show an opposite pattern: automatic prioritisation of items associated with reward uncertainty over diagnostic stimuli. We hypothesise that this uncertainty-modulated attentional capture (UMAC) effect reflects 'attention for learning': that is, exploration of potential sources of new information. Here we investigated whether UMAC arises because immediate provision of reward feedback in prior studies rendered advance information redundant, attenuating exploitation of diagnostic items and promoting exploration. Accordingly, increasing the duration of anticipated uncertainty (and hence the value of advance information that allows us to escape uncertainty earlier) should promote prioritisation of diagnostic cues and lead to patterns of attentional exploitation. In two eye-tracking experiments, we compared attentional capture by a cue providing diagnostic reward information and a cue signalling uncertain reward, while manipulating the delay between response and feedback (i.e., the duration of anticipated uncertainty that advance information could forestall). We found a UMAC effect in all conditions: regardless of response-feedback delay, uncertain stimuli were more likely to capture attention than diagnostic stimuli. These results suggest that prioritisation of uncertainty is a robust pattern of behaviour in this task. Synthesising current and previous findings, we suggest that different modes of attentional information-seeking may reflect qualitative task differences, with exploration operating at an implicit, automatic level, and exploitation resulting from top-down, volitional processes.
(Copyright © 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest Authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interest to disclose.
Contributed Indexing: Keywords: Attention capture; Feedback; Information seeking; Reward; Uncertainty
Entry Date(s): Date Created: 20260117 Date Completed: 20260630 Latest Revision: 20260630
Update Code: 20260630
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106447
PMID: 41546908
Βάση Δεδομένων: MEDLINE
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  Data: Demonstrations of information-seeking behaviour suggest that attention often acts in an exploitative way, prioritising stimuli that provide diagnostic information about upcoming events over stimuli associated with uncertainty. However, recent evidence from studies of attentional capture in visual search show an opposite pattern: automatic prioritisation of items associated with reward uncertainty over diagnostic stimuli. We hypothesise that this uncertainty-modulated attentional capture (UMAC) effect reflects 'attention for learning': that is, exploration of potential sources of new information. Here we investigated whether UMAC arises because immediate provision of reward feedback in prior studies rendered advance information redundant, attenuating exploitation of diagnostic items and promoting exploration. Accordingly, increasing the duration of anticipated uncertainty (and hence the value of advance information that allows us to escape uncertainty earlier) should promote prioritisation of diagnostic cues and lead to patterns of attentional exploitation. In two eye-tracking experiments, we compared attentional capture by a cue providing diagnostic reward information and a cue signalling uncertain reward, while manipulating the delay between response and feedback (i.e., the duration of anticipated uncertainty that advance information could forestall). We found a UMAC effect in all conditions: regardless of response-feedback delay, uncertain stimuli were more likely to capture attention than diagnostic stimuli. These results suggest that prioritisation of uncertainty is a robust pattern of behaviour in this task. Synthesising current and previous findings, we suggest that different modes of attentional information-seeking may reflect qualitative task differences, with exploration operating at an implicit, automatic level, and exploitation resulting from top-down, volitional processes.<br /> (Copyright © 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
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