Understanding the Relationship Between Implicit and Explicit Change Detection: Evidence From Scan Path Data

Recent evidence suggests that changes can be detected outside of focal attention. However, the relationship between implicit change detection and explicit change detection is unclear. The present article examines the hypothesis that unattended changes can attract focal attention by examining search slopes for large and small changes in the flicker task (Rensink et al., 1997). Consistent with previous work, the search slopes relating response time and the number of distractors were shallower for larger compared with smaller changes. Critically, this search slope difference arose before the changing item was fixated for the first time and not in the time between the first target fixation and response. This outcome is consistent with unattended changes drawing focal attention to the change location.