Learned Distractor Rejection: Robust but Surprisingly Rapid

The ability to reduce the distraction associated with repetitive irrelevant stimuli is critical to goal-directed navigation of the visual environment. Research has supported the existence of such an ability, which has often been referred to as learned distractor rejection (Vatterott & Vecera, 2012). However, despite being theoretically relevant to many prominent accounts of distractor ignoring, few studies have directly tested learned distractor rejection since its conception. In the current study we present three direct replications of Vatterott and Vecera’s method that were separately conducted by two independent groups of researchers. Using the conventional split-block analysis, all three replications produce nearly identical results that fail to replicate the original study’s finding. However, using analyses on a finer-grained timescale we found compelling evidence for the existence of a learned ignoring of salient distractors. Critically, this learning occurred much more rapidly than has been previously assumed, taking only 2-3 encounters with the distracting item before efficient rejection emerged.