Attention shifts in the spatial cueing paradigm reflect direct influences of experience and not top-down goals

The spatial cueing effect (SCE) that is elicited by informative spatial cues serves as an empirical marker of attention shifts in the spatial cueing paradigm, and it has been widely interpreted to reflect a relatively pure form of top-down attention control. Contrary to this interpretation, the present study examined the extent to which the magnitude of the SCE could be due to learned associations between specific cues and shifts of attention to the corresponding location, while attempting to track potential changes in participants' task goals across the experiment. This was accomplished by using a novel two-choice, spatial cueing paradigm in which participants chose between two spatial validity contexts. One spatial validity context always involved a 25%-valid (uninformative) arrow cue - called the "test" context; whereas the alternate context - called the "inducing" context - was varied between groups. In particular, associations between specific cues and shifts of attention to the corresponding cued location were perfectly predictable in the "strong inducing" context (100%-valid arrow cues) and imperfectly predictable in the "weak inducing" context (70%-valid arrow cues). Consistent with the experience-dependent account, the results showed that the magnitude of the SCE observed in the test context increased as an individual's experience with the strong inducing context increased. Furthermore, these context effects were observed using both overlearned (arrow) and arbitrary (number) cues, as well as when eye movements were controlled. Altogether, these findings suggest that the magnitude of the SCE can be influenced directly by experience, and not by the top-down goals of the individual.