Abstract: Lavie’s theory of attention load proposed that the processing load in a relevant target task determines the extent to which irrelevant distractors are processed. When perceptual load is high, the extent to which irrelevant distractors are processed decreases. We tested this theory by changing the perceptual load in target tasks and interstimulus intervals between target and distractor. We found that stimulus-driven attentional capture effect existed in both low- and high-load conditions: 333ms in low-load condition, 0~167ms in high-load condition. These results suggested that attentional capture can be observed in high-load condition at different time courses compared with that in the low-load condition.

Key words: stimulus-driven attentional capture, attention load, distractor