Object-Centered Spatial Learning in Dynamic Contexts: History-Driven Distractor Suppression and Target Enhancement

The world around us is inherently structured and often repetitive. Research has shown that we can implicitly learn to prioritize relevant objects and locations while filtering out distracting information, creating an integrated priority map for attention allocation. The current study examines whether providing an object-like reference frame would induce an object-centered attentional bias or whether the bias would remain in egocentric (viewpoint-centered) coordinates. The search display consisted of six stimuli that were surrounded by a wheel and square frame. In two experiments, either a distractor or a target appeared more frequently in one location, leading to the suppression or enhancement of that location, respectively. Learning blocks were followed by test blocks, where the frame rotated, creating egocentric-matching and object-centered locations. These experiments showed that both target and distractor learning relied on an egocentric reference frame only. In follow-up experiments, the likely target and distractor location rotated dynamically with the frame during learning. This revealed that participants can learn to enhance a likely target location in an object-centered manner. We hypothesized that while space-based learning feeds into a priority map reliant on an egocentric reference frame, object-based learning allows for implicit prioritization of subparts of objects independent of their spatial orientation. Public significance statement Our brains cannot process the overwhelming amount of visual information we encounter daily. Fortunately, the world is inherently structured and has patterns we can learn, helping us to selectively focus on what’s important and ignore distractions. This study examines how we use these patterns in dynamic, ever-changing environments. The findings show that when regularities are learned in static settings, our learned attentional biases remain tied to our static viewpoints. But in dynamic environments, attentional priorities can be tied to objects, irrespective of the objects’ orientation, while suppressed distractor locations remain tied to specific viewpoints. This discovery helps us understand how our brain adapts to complex, real-world situations.