Object-based attentional effects in response to eye-gaze and arrow cues

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated that central cues, such as eyes and arrows, reflexively trigger attentional shifts. However, it is not clear whether the attention induced by these two cues can be attached to objects within the visual scene. In the current study, subjects' attention was directed to one of two objects (square outlines) via the observation of uninformative directional arrows or eye gaze. Then, the objects rotated 90° clockwise or counter-clockwise to a new location and the target stimulus was presented within one of these two objects. Results showed that independent of the cue type participants responded faster to targets in the cued object than to those in the uncued object. This suggests that in dynamic displays, both gaze and arrow cues are able to trigger reflexive shifts of attention to objects moving within the visual scene.