Distractor suppression operates exclusively in retinotopic coordinates.

Abstract

Our attention is influenced by past experiences, and recent studies have shown that individuals learn to extract statistical regularities in the environment, resulting in attentional suppression of locations that are likely to contain a distractor (high probability [HP] location). However, little is known as to whether this learned suppression operates in retinotopic (relative to the eyes) or spatiotopic (relative to the world) coordinates. In the current study, two circular search arrays were presented side by side. Participants learned the HP location from a learning array presented on one side of the display (e.g., left). After several trials, participants shifted their gaze to the center of the test array (e.g., located on the right side) in which all locations were equally likely to contain the distractor. Due to the saccade, the test array contained both a spatiotopic and a retinotopic matching location relative to the original HP location. The current findings show that, following saccadic eye movements, the learned suppression remained in retinotopic coordinates only, with no measurable transfer to spatiotopic coordinates. Even in a rich environment, attentional suppression still operated exclusively in retinotopic coordinates. We speculate that learned suppression may be resolved by changing synaptic weights in early visual areas. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).