Top-down matching singleton cues have no edge over top-down matching nonsingletons in spatial cueing

In the present study, we investigated in a novel version of the peripheral-cueing paradigm whether object salience influences attentional selection at early stages of visual processing. In each trial, participants searched for targets of one of two possible colors. In the most important condition, the cueing displays consisted of a singleton cue having one target color and three additional nonsingletons of another target color. Hence, all objects in these all-relevant cueing displays had a target color. If singletons initially capture attention in a stimulus-driven way, regular cueing effects (faster responses to targets at the cued location than to targets away from the cue) should be found in these conditions. However, the results suggested otherwise: As compared to a control condition with a singleton cue of a target color among nonsingletons of a nontarget color, the cueing effects in all-relevant cueing displays were strongly reduced. This was also replicated with a very brief cue–target interval. The results suggest top-down contingent capture of attention even during the initial phase of processing salient stimuli, and argue against stimulus-driven capture of attention plus subsequent rapid disengagement.