Zivony, A., von Bastian, C.C. and Pye, R. (Accepted: 2025) Measuring individual differences in the speed of attention using the distractor intrusion task. Behavior Research Methods. ISSN: 1554-351X (In Press)
Abstract
How quickly we attend to objects plays an important role in navigating the world, especially in dynamic and rapidly changing environments. Measuring individual differences in the speed of attention is therefore an important yet challenging task. Although reaction times in visual search tasks have often been used as an intuitive proxy of such individual differences, these measures are limited by inconsistent levels of reliability and contamination by non-attentional factors. This study introduces the rate of post-target distractor intrusions (DI) in the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm as an alternative method of studying individual differences in the speed of attention. In RSVP, a target is presented for a brief duration and embedded among multiple distractors. DIs are reports of a subsequent distractor instead of the target, previously shown to be associated with the speed of attention. The present study explored the reliability and validity of DI rates as a measure of individual differences. In three studies, DI rates showed high internal consistency and test-retest reliability over a year (>.90), even with a short task administration of only about 5 min. Moreover, DI rates were associated with measures related to attention speed, but not with unrelated measures of attentional control, reading speed, and attentional blink effects. Taken together, DI rates can serve as a useful tool for research into individual differences in the speed of attention. Links to a downloadable and easily executable DI experiment, as well as a brief discussion of methodological considerations, are provided to facilitate such future research.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Authors/Creators: |
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| Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2026 The Psychonomic Society, Inc. |
| Keywords: | Individual differences; distractor intrusions; visual search; RSVP; attentional blink |
| Dates: |
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| Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
| Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
| Date Deposited: | 12 Jan 2026 15:48 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Jan 2026 15:48 |
| Status: | In Press |
| Publisher: | Springer |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Identification Number: | 10.3758/s13428-025-02916-8 |
| Related URLs: | |
| Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:236430 |
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Filename: Distractor intrusions individual differences - Final.docx
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