Data from: Is predictability salient? A study of attentional capture by auditory patterns

In this series of behavioural and electroencephalography (EEG) experiments, we investigate the extent to which repeating patterns of sounds capture attention. Work in the visual domain has revealed attentional capture by statistically predictable stimuli, consistent with predictive coding accounts which suggest that attention is drawn to sensory regularities. Here, stimuli comprised rapid sequences of tone pips, arranged in regular (REG) or random (RAND) patterns. EEG data demonstrate that the brain rapidly recognizes predictable patterns manifested as a rapid increase in responses to REG relative to RAND sequences. This increase is reminiscent of the increase in gain on neural responses to attended stimuli often seen in the neuroimaging literature, and thus consistent with the hypothesis that predictable sequences draw attention. To study potential attentional capture by auditory regularities, we used REG and RAND sequences in two different behavioural tasks designed to reveal effects of attentional capture by regularity. Overall, the pattern of results suggests that regularity does not capture attention.

在本系列行为学与脑电图（electroencephalography, EEG）实验中，我们探究了重复性声音模式引发注意捕获的程度。视觉领域的相关研究已证实，具有统计可预测性的刺激会引发注意捕获，这与预测编码理论相符——该理论认为注意会被感官规律性所吸引。本实验中，刺激物为快速呈现的纯音短脉冲序列，分为规则型（REG）与随机型（RAND）两种模式。脑电图数据显示，大脑可快速识别可预测模式，具体表现为相较于随机型序列，大脑对规则型序列的反应幅度快速升高。这种反应增幅与神经影像学研究中常见的、受注意刺激的神经反应增益提升现象一致，因此支持了“可预测序列会吸引注意”这一假说。为探究听觉规律性是否会引发注意捕获，我们采用规则型与随机型序列，设计了两项旨在揭示规律性引发注意捕获效应的行为学任务。综合来看，实验结果的整体模式表明，规律性并不会引发注意捕获。