Matthew Tong¹ (), Matthieu Chidharom², Nancy B. Carlisle¹; ¹Lehigh University, ²The University of Chicago

During visual search, knowledge of distractor features can form negative attentional templates, guiding attention away from distractors and resulting in improved performance. Previous research identified proactive control as a mechanism underlying negative templates, allowing for the anticipation of distractors to prevent attentional capture. In recent work, inter-individual differences in proactive control were associated with the response time (RT) benefits of negative templates, suggesting the importance of trait-level factors. In contrast, it is unclear whether state-level factors play a role. The goal of this study was to examine whether state-based changes in proactive control impact the benefits to RT from negative templates. To induce state-based variation in proactive control, we manipulated reward motivation in a cued visual search task across four experiments. Rewards for a correct response could either be low (75% of trials) or high (25%). The search cue, which varied in a blocked design, could match the target color (positive), the distractor color (negative), or neither (neutral). In addition to RT, we also measured the standard deviation of RT, given evidence that proactive control can be behaviorally measured using RT variability. In Experiments 1 and 2, using a point-based reward resulted in no significant effects on RT or RT variability. In Experiments 3 and 4, using a monetary reward instead led to faster RT and lower RT variability for high rewards compared to low in the positive cue condition, but not in the negative cue condition. We concluded that a more efficient engagement of proactive control based on reward was associated with positive templates, but not negative templates. Overall, these results provide new evidence that using negative templates is not modulated by within-individual fluctuations of reward motivation. Negative template use may be more related to a trait-based, inter-individual ability to engage proactive control efficiently, rather than state-based factors.