Reward­ing Stim­uli and Visu­al Search Performance

Reward­ing Stim­uli and Visu­al Search Performance

The per­ceived val­ue or impor­tance of a stim­u­lus influ­ences visu­al search per­for­mance. Val­ue-mod­u­lat­ed atten­tion­al cap­ture (VMAC) tasks can mea­sure the degree of influ­ence a stim­u­lus has on atten­tion. In these tasks, when a non-tar­get is made salient and rep­re­sents high reward poten­tial, atten­tion­al resources are redi­rect­ed to the non-tar­get, result­ing in slow­er response times. This study aims to mea­sure the effect of ego­cen­tric cog­ni­tions in atten­tion­al cap­ture and mea­sure the impact on motor move­ments using mouse tra­jec­to­ries. In Exper­i­ment 1, we repli­cat­ed a tra­di­tion­al VMAC effect with but­ton-press response times. Addi­tion­al­ly, using mouse track­ing, we showed that tra­jec­to­ries are longer under high reward poten­tial com­pared to low reward poten­tial. In Exper­i­ment 2, we explored the effect of an own­er­ship manip­u­la­tion, in which par­tic­i­pants have equal oppor­tu­ni­ty to earn rewards for them­selves or a fic­ti­tious ‘Oth­er.’ Par­tic­i­pants showed no VMAC effect, and response times for earn­ing a reward for them­selves vers­es anoth­er per­son were com­pa­ra­ble. This research sheds new light on the rela­tion­ship between reward, visu­al search per­for­mance, and motor behav­iour, as well as the effect of ego­cen­tric cog­ni­tions on visu­al search. Addi­tion­al­ly, we will dis­cuss details of an ongo­ing third experiment.