Emma Holtz¹, Vanessa Lee¹; ¹University of Minnesota

Past experience often guides spatial attention: locations that frequently contain a visual search target are prioritized (location probability learning, LPL), even without conscious awareness. Previous studies suggest that LPL may reflect a habit of shifting attention towards target-rich locations, raising questions about whether its acquisition depends on active control over where to shift attention. To address the role of active visual sampling in implicitly learned attention, we administered a novel two-person yoked visual search task. Participant 1 (P1) actively explored the search display containing one T and 11 Ls using a mouse cursor with a 6.7deg-diameter region to uncover items until finding the target. The T was more often in one visual quadrant than the others. Participant 2 (P2) viewed a recording of P1’s displays while also doing the search task; P2 had no control over the mouse or the pace of the trials. P2 later gained control over the mouse in a neutral testing phase during which the target’s location was random. Results showed that P1 developed LPL, with faster RT in the high-probability than low-probability target quadrants. When performing the search task over P1’s displays, P2 was moderately successful (13% miss rate; 73% accuracy on hit trials), while displaying strong correlations in search RTs with P1. Importantly, in the final neutral testing phase, P2, who now performed with 97% accuracy, showed faster RT in the previously rich quadrant than the sparse quadrants. Unlike P1, who showed greater LPL when they became aware of the rich quadrant, P2’s awareness of the rich quadrant did not affect their learning. These results showed, for the first time, that active sampling of visual stimuli is unnecessary for the acquisition of implicitly learned attention.