Color-relation-based capture occurs globally

Previous studies have shown that a distractor matching the target–nontarget color relation did not capture attention when it appeared outside of the attentional window, indicating that color-relation-based attention is lack of global selection. The present study examined whether a distractor best matching the target–nontarget color relation instead of the target color captured attention outside of the attentional window. The results consistently showed that peripheral distractors best matching the target–nontarget color relation instead of the target color captured attention outside of the attentional window. Additionally, color-relation-matched distractors outweighed target-color-matched distractors in capturing attention under this circumstance. This suggests that the color-relation-based attention shares the hallmark of global selection with the color-based attention. Combined with the previous finding of double dissociation of color-relation-based attention and color-based attention (Du & Jiao, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 42 (4), 480–493, 2016 ; Du, Yin, Qi, & Zhang, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21 (4), 1011–1018, 2014 ), preference for color-relation within the attentional window and priority for target color outside of the attentional window might be a strategic choice of visual attention.