Theeuwes (2004) proposed that stimulus-driven capture occurs primarily for salient stimuli that fall within the observer's attentional window, such as when performing a parallel search. This proposal, supported by some studies, can explain many seemingly discrepant results in the literature. The present study tested this proposal using a modified pre-cuing paradigm. Search mode was manipulated via target-distractor similarity in color space. In the parallel search condition, the orange target “popped out” from a set of distantly colored distractors (blue and green). In the serial search condition, the orange target was more difficult to find amongst a set of similarly colored distractors (yellow and red). In Experiments 1 and 2, cue validity effects for irrelevant color singleton cues were greater under parallel search than serial search, at least partially replicating previous studies favoring the attentional window account (e.g., Belopolsky et al., 2007). We found the opposite pattern, however, for capture by abrupt onsets (Experiments 3 and 4). Here, capture effects were actually greater under serial search. In sum, parallel search appears to facilitate capture by color singletons, yet inhibit capture by abrupt onsets.Keywords: attentional capture, visual search, spatial attentio
