From Capture to Suppression: An ERP Study Testing Signal Suppression 2.0, Selection History Components, and the Role of Trait Anxiety

Abstract

Distractor suppression is shaped by two dissociable experience-driven mechanisms: statistical learning, which implicitly extracts spatial regularities to downweight recurring distractors, and reward history, which assigns higher attentional priority to previously rewarded stimuli. However, whether attentional capture predicts later suppression remains an unresolved question. The present study used an additional singleton task that orthogonally manipulated distractor location probability (high vs low) and reward value (high vs low) as within-subject factors. Behavioural and electrophysiological (EEG) data, along with trait anxiety (STAI), were collected (behavioural N = 12ERP N = 9). We hypothesised that early attentional capture (N2pc amplitude) would predict subsequent suppression (Pd amplitude), that trait anxiety would impair statistical learning–based suppression while enhancing reward-driven capture, and that reward signals would override statistical regularities. Contrary to predictions, results revealed no overall significant correlation between early phase capture and later phase suppression at the group level or condition-wise. Furthermore, reward value and distractor location probability interacted on N2pc amplitude, such that spatial suppression at high probability locations attenuated reward-driven capture. Critically, trait anxiety significantly moderated probability-based ERP indices (N2pc and Pd), but not probability behavioural measures or reward-driven capture. Together, these findings indicate that components of selection history interact competitively rather than operating independently, and identify trait anxiety as a specific modulator of statistical learning–based suppression.