Context-driven Attention

We study how selective attention adapts to context rather than remaining fixed throughout a task. In context-specific proportion congruent (CSPC) paradigms, participants respond more efficiently to conflict in locations or contexts where incongruent trials are frequent, suggesting that attentional settings adjust dynamically based on experience. Our research explores whether these effects generalize across stimuli using transfer designs, revealing that CSPC effects are tied to specific stimulus-context associations rather than reflecting general attentional adjustments. Trial-to-trial analyses further show that attentional adjustments occur only when the context remains consistent, underscoring the importance of informative contexts for guiding attention. Ongoing research, supported by the Bard Research Fund, investigates whether similar effects emerge when contexts are defined by race and other social categories.

Relevant Publications

(*indicates Bard undergraduate co-author)

Hutcheon, T. G. (2022). What is cued by faces in the face-based context-specific proportion manipulation? Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 84, 1248 – 1263. (link)

Hutcheon, T. G., Spieler, D. H., & Eldar*, M. (2017) Properties of context-driven control revealed through the analysis of sequential congruency effects. Acta Psychologica. (link)

Hutcheon, T. G., & Spieler, D. H. (2017). Limits on the generalizability of context driven control. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70. , 1292 – 1304. (.pdf) (link)

Hutcheon, T. G., & Spieler, D. H. (2014). Contextual influences on the sequential congruency effect. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21, 155-162. (.pdf) (link)

Relevant Presentations

(*indicates Bard undergraduate co-author)

Hutcheon, T. G., Caliandro*, M., Tucker*, G., Wang*, M., & Wu*, K. (2022, March). Can race serve as a context in context-driven attentional control? Poster presented at the 93rd annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, New York, NY. (Poster)

Hutcheon, T. G. (2021, May). Context-driven control is not cued by gender. Poster presented at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, Virtual Meeting. (Poster)

Hutcheon, T. G. (2021, April). The impact of social categories on context-driven attention. Talk presented as part of the Bard College Psychology Program Colloquium Series. Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.

Hutcheon, T. G., Zion*, I, & Arnold*, J. (2019, November). Context-specific contingency  learning under low but not high memory load.  Poster presented at the 60th annual  meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Montreal, QC, Canada. (Poster)

Kolovoskaia*, D., & Hutcheon, T. G. (2019, April). The impact of working memory load on stimulus-driven control. Talk presented at the 8th Annual Smolny International Student Conference, St Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia. [Winner of  Best Student Presentation Award]

Hutcheon, T. G., Augustin* A., Coffey*, B., Griffin*, C., Kolovoskaia*, D., & Zion*, I (2019, March). Stimulus-driven control in the absence of contingency learning. Poster presented at the 90th annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, New York, NY. (Poster)

Hutcheon, T. G., Gibson*, O., Sullivan*, A., & Fitzgerald*, E. (2018, November). Evidence for stimulus-driven control under concurrent memory load.  Poster presented at the 59th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, New Orleans, LA. (Poster)

Hutcheon, T. G. (2018, March). Learning to ignore: The impact of stimulus experience on cognitive control.  Talk presented as part of the Bard College Psychology Program Colloquium Series. Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.

Hutcheon, T. G., Lian*, A., & Richard*, A. (2016, November). Applying response time distribution analysis to item-level manipulations: Evidence for stimulus-driven  control. Poster presented at the 57th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Boston, MA. (Poster)

Eldar*, M., Bremner*, M., & Hutcheon, T. G. (2015, October). Moving beyond the mean in studies of stimulus-driven control. Poster presented at the 55th annual meeting of the New England Psychological Association, Fitchburg, MA. (Poster)

Hutcheon, T. G., Eldar*, M., & Bremner*, M. (2015, May). Investigating the specificity of proactive control in tasks of selective attention. Poster presented at the 27th annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, New York, NY. (Poster)

Hutcheon, T. G. & Spieler, D. H. (2014, November). Properties of context-driven control revealed through the analysis of conflict adaptation effects. Poster presented at the 55th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Long Beach, CA. (Poster)