Distractor avoidance and early quitting in visual search

In the current study, we examined the mechanisms underpinning how salient distractors produce early quitting in visual search. Participants completed a simple visual search task and indicated whether a target was present or absent. When salient distractors were present, fewer eye movements occurred before target-absent responses, and less of the display area was searched. Surprisingly, participants actively avoided directing eye movements towards the distractor. Still, salient distractors increased both search errors, which were committed when the target was never fixated, and decision errors, which were committed when the target was fixated but not detected. Our results demonstrate that salient distractors trigger early quitting by reducing the amount of information that observers extract from the search image and disrupting search guidance.