Attraction, Distraction and Action: Multiple Perspectives on Attentional Capture

Over the last decade there has been a spate of research on the empirical phenomenon known as "attentional capture". Interest in capture can be attributed not only to its applied significance, but also to the implications of the phenomenon for theories of selective attention, as well as cognitive control in general. This growing interest, however, has also spawned a wide variety of experimental paradigms, empirical results, and theoretical perspectives. In June of 2000, 40 experimental psychol…