Can capture by abrupt onsets be suppressed

Many studies have indicated that abrupt onsets have the power to capture attention against our will. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that abrupt onsets can be suppressed, but only when there is a strong incentive to do so. We presented a highly-salient flurry of distracting, irrelevant abrupt onsets immediately prior to each target display. This should incentivize participants to suppress the disruptive onsets (if that is an available strategy) and/or habituate to the abrupt onsets. In Experiment 1, the flurry of onsets was composed of dots. Experiment 2 greatly increased the size of the flashing onsets (10-fold increase in pixels) to make them even more salient and worthy of suppression. Experiment 3 used premasks, so that the search items would be offsets rather than onsets. Experiment 4 created more direct competition between the salient onsets and the search display. Surprisingly, despite the variety of approaches employed specifically to promote suppression of capture by abrupt onsets, we were unable to eliminate, or even noticeably reduce, capture effects. The present data support the hypothesis that the visual system is incapable of suppressing abrupt onsets in diffusely attended regions of visual space.