No evidence of attentional prioritization for threatening targets in visual search
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11310%2F24%3A10480547" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11310/24:10480547 - isvavai.cz</a>
Alternative codes found
RIV/02819180:_____/24:#0000103
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=~BqxwNUxLZ" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=~BqxwNUxLZ</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-56265-1" target="_blank" >10.1038/s41598-024-56265-1</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
No evidence of attentional prioritization for threatening targets in visual search
Original language description
Throughout human evolutionary history, snakes have been associated with danger and threat. Research has shown that snakes are prioritized by our attentional system, despite many of us rarely encountering them in our daily lives. We conducted two high-powered, pre-registered experiments (total N = 224) manipulating target prevalence to understand this heightened prioritization of threatening targets. Target prevalence refers to the proportion of trials wherein a target is presented; reductions in prevalence consistently reduce the likelihood that targets will be found. We reasoned that snake targets in visual search should experience weaker effects of low target prevalence compared to non-threatening targets (rabbits) because they should be prioritized by searchers despite appearing rarely. In both experiments, we found evidence of classic prevalence effects but (contrasting prior work) we also found that search for threatening targets was slower and less accurate than for nonthreatening targets. This surprising result is possibly due to methodological issues common in prior studies, including comparatively smaller sample sizes, fewer trials, and a tendency to exclusively examine conditions of relatively high prevalence. Our findings call into question accounts of threat prioritization and suggest that prior attention findings may be constrained to a narrow range of circumstances.
Czech name
—
Czech description
—
Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
—
OECD FORD branch
10613 - Zoology
Result continuities
Project
<a href="/en/project/GA22-13381S" target="_blank" >GA22-13381S: Human responses to ancestral and modern threats and their comparison to airborne pathogens</a><br>
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)
Others
Publication year
2024
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Scientific Reports
ISSN
2045-2322
e-ISSN
2045-2322
Volume of the periodical
14
Issue of the periodical within the volume
1
Country of publishing house
GB - UNITED KINGDOM
Number of pages
14
Pages from-to
5651
UT code for WoS article
001185083700056
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85187150106