Top-down categorical information can be utilized in distractor suppression

Abstract

Studies of attention have found behavioral benefits when observers are provided with top-down information related to distractor items. This effect is known as distractor suppression and is thought to be an independent process from target guidance. Most studies have focused on salient or singleton cues to elucidate upon the top-down versus bottom-up debate. Here, we examined if distractor suppression applies to categorical cues through three experiments. In Experiment 1, we modeled previously reported paradigms and replicated suppression effects to salient stimuli but with categorical objects. In Experiment 2, stimulus salience was kept constant, and participants were informed that a category of objects was always a distractor. We found distractor suppression effects where response times (RTs) were faster on trials that included the cued distractor category. In Experiment 3, distractor suppression effects were preserved when we utilized a slightly modified target set embedded in categorical objects. The present set of studies indicate that categorical information can be suppressed. The results suggest that attentional guidance may not be reliant on only the weighting of target features when categorical information is known, but also the use of relevant distractor information.