Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33620698›Full record

ArticlePsychonomic bulletin & review2021

Proactive distractor suppression elicited by statistical regularities in visual search.

Changrun Huang, Ana Vilotijević, Jan Theeuwes, Mieke Donk

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Psychonomic bulletin & review, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
28citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
6.2field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 68 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. The puzzle of profitless pre-cues.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026
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  6. Visual statistical learning requires attention.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2025
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  7. Learning Modulates Early Encephalographic Responses to Distracting Stimuli: A Combined SSVEP and ERP Study.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
    Article
  8. Article
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  12. Article
  13. The effects of eccentricity on attentional capture.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2024
    Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Attentional suppression is in place before display onset.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2023
    Article
  18. Predictability reduces event file retrieval.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2023
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Attentional priority is determined by predicted feature distributions.Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance · 2022
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Changrun HuangDepartment of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 7-9, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. changrunhuang@gmail.com.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1627-0887
Ana VilotijevićDepartment of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 7-9, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4087-7096
Jan TheeuwesDepartment of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 7-9, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5849-7721
Mieke DonkDepartment of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 7-9, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9310-8210
Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience · NLAllen Institute for Brain Science · US

Funding

China Scholarship Council 201908440284European Research Council 833029
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Irrelevant salient objects may capture our attention and interfere with visual search. Recently, it was shown that distraction by a salient object is reduced when it is presented more frequently at one location than at other locations. The present study investigates whether this reduced distractor interference is the result of proactive spatial suppression, implemented prior to display onset, or reactive suppression, occurring after attention has been directed to that location. Participants were asked to search for a shape singleton in the presence of an irrelevant salient color singleton which was presented more often at one location (the high-probability location) than at all other locations (the low-probability locations). On some trials, instead of the search task, participants performed a probe task, in which they had to detect the offset of a probe dot. The results of the search task replicated previous findings showing reduced distractor interference in trials in which the salient distractor was presented at the high-probability location as compared with the low-probability locations. The probe task showed that reaction times were longer for probes presented at the high-probability location than at the low-probability locations. These results indicate that through statistical learning the location that is likely to contain a distractor is suppressed proactively (i.e., prior to display onset). It suggests that statistical learning modulates the first feed-forward sweep of information processing by deprioritizing locations that are likely to contain a distractor in the spatial priority map.

Indexed as

Inhibition, PsychologicalAdultAttentionFemaleForm PerceptionHumansMaleVisual PerceptionYoung AdultSalienceStatistical learningVisual selection

Identifiers

PMID33620698
PMCPMC8219562
OpenAlexW3132108132

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.