Does Involuntary Attentional Capture Curtail Stimulus Processing

Abstract

Under certain conditions uninformative visual cues at non-target locations increase target RTs. The typical explanation is that visual attention has been involuntarily summoned to the cued location and is unavailable when needed at the target location. Here we present evidence that capture has not just oriented attention away from the target location, but has lead to the processing of stimuli at the location of the uninformative cue.