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Sudden onsets in the visual periphery elicit reflexive shifts of covert exogenous spatial attention. Here, we asked: are the behavioral effects of such an irrelevant exogenous cue modulated by implicit knowledge about the probability of the cue’s presence? Participants discriminated the orientation of a visual target that was preceded, on some trials, by an abrupt-onset task-irrelevant disk (exogenous cue). A color at fixation (red or green) signaled the probability that a cue would appear (0.8, “high- probability”, or 0.2, “low-probability”). When presented, this cue flashed briefly in the periphery, either near the target (valid cue) or non-target stimulus (invalid cue, equally likely). We used a speed- accuracy tradeoff (SAT) procedure to vary the time given for participants to process the stimuli before responding. We found that low-probability cues generated significantly larger cueing effects (discrimination accuracy, valid–invalid) than high-probability cues, but only when responses were made early in the accumulation of visual information (i.e., under strict time pressure). Both the directionality and temporal dynamics of these results were replicated across a series of online studies. Thus, expectations about an exogenous cue’s presence or absence have a significant yet transient impact on its ability to direct the reflexive allocation of covert exogenous spatial attention.
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This content will become publicly available on May 1, 2026
Luminance Matching in Cognitive Pupillometry Is Not Enough: The Curious Case of Orientation
Abrupt onsets reflexively shift covert spatial attention. Recent work demonstrated that trial-to-trial information about the probability of a peripheral onset modulated the magnitude of the attentional cueing effect (low probability > high probability). Although onsets were physically identical, pupil responses could have been modulated by information about the probability of the onset's appearance. Specifically, anticipatory constrictions may have preceded high-probability onsets. Here, we tested this hypothesis using centrally presented, luminance-matched onset-probability signals. For half the participants, vertical signaled high probability (0.8) of onset appearance, while horizontal signaled low probability (0.2). Contingencies were reversed for the other half. Participants fixated the onset-probability signal for 2,000 ms before the onset was briefly presented or omitted, in line with the signaled probability. To maintain engagement, participants completed a simple localization task. Preliminary evidence for an anticipatory reduction in the pupil area was obtained in Experiment 1. However, this effect disappeared in Experiment 2 with a larger replication sample. Exploratory analyses uncovered a violation of a fundamental methodological assumption: despite being task-irrelevant and perfectly luminance-matched, vertical onset-probability signals consistently generated smaller pupil areas, relative to horizontal signals in both Experiments 1 and 2. Interestingly, this “orientation effect” was stronger in the second half of the experimental session, and in a third experiment, we significantly reduced its magnitude by changing the locations of the task-relevant stimuli. In short, across three experiments (self-reported gender, 52 females, 26 males, 1 nonbinary), we show that even with perfect luminance matching, unforeseen changes in cognitive state can modulate pupillometric measurements.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2141860
- PAR ID:
- 10643021
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1523
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- eneuro
- Volume:
- 12
- Issue:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 2373-2822
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: Article No. ENEURO.0238-25.2025
- Size(s):
- Article No. ENEURO.0238-25.2025
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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