and working memory demand on distractor interference

ii Humans are capable of selecting information that is goal-relevant. Irrelevant (distractor) information, however, typically is not filtered completely and impacts on responses to the goal. Recent theories of selective attention indicate that distractor interference is determined by the perceptual load of a visual display and the availability of cognitive control mechanisms (working memory load). It is unclear however, which mechanisms assist efficient selective attention and how irrelevant distracting information is rejected. Using a go/no-go visual attention task (Experiment 1) and a visual search task (Experiment 2), this series of experiments examined distractor processing in visual selective attention. Participants responded to a target letter based on the identity of an additional adjacent item (Experiment 1A). An incongruent distractor letter appeared either above or below the central fixation point in the high and low perceptual load conditions (HPL and LPL). Perceptual load was successfully manipulated, such that reaction times were faster in the LPL compared to the HPL condition. Subsequentl