Abstract
Human attention can be guided by semantic information of individual objects in the environment (e.g., traffic light). In the current study, we reported a novel phenomenon in which certain behavioural contexts could determine whether guidance of attention occurs. Using a driving simulator, we simulated a real-world driving task representing an over-learned behaviour. A peripheral cue-target paradigm was implemented where a roadside pedestrian avatar (target) appeared following a cylinder cue. Results revealed that, during simulated driving, participants (all with driver’s licenses) showed increased attentional facilitation when pedestrians were oriented toward the road compared to away. This orientation-specific selectivity was not seen if the 3-D context was removed, or the same visual scene was presented but participants’ viewpoint remained stationary, or an inanimate object served as a target during simulated driving. This context-specific attention modulation likely reflects drivers’ expertise in automaticallyattending to behaviourally relevant information in a context-dependent manner.