Attentional capture under high perceptual load.

Attentional capture by abrupt onsets can be modulated by several factors, including the complexity, or perceptual load, of a scene. We have recently demonstrated that observers are less likely to be captured by abruptly appearing, task-irrelevant stimuli when they perform a search that is high, as opposed to low, in perceptual load Scenes contain a tremendous amount of information, often more than an observer can process at one time. As a result, selective attention mechanisms have developed that allow us to focus only on the information most relevant for carrying out our goals. For example, when attempting to read a newspaper in a crowded coffeehouse, we focus on the words on the page and ignore the irrelevant sights and sounds around us. Such goal-directed attentional control allows us to focus on the task at hand without interruption from extraneous information. However, sometimes our attention is captured by salient information in the environment regardless of its relevance to our goals. This type of stimulus-driven attentional capture is ubiquitous and can cause us to shift away from our primary goals and attend to information outside of our current focus