Why signal suppression cannot resolve the attentional capture debate

Luck et al. (2021 Luck, S. J., Gaspelin, N., Folk, C. L., Remington, R. W., & Theeuwes, J. (2021). Progress toward resolving the attentional capture debate. Visual Cognition, 29(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2020.1848949[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], Progress toward resolving the attentional capture debate. Visual Cognition, 29(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2020.1848949) propose that proactive suppression can help to resolve the long-standing attentional capture debate. They argue that salient but task-irrelevant stimuli automatically generate a priority signal, which leads to attentional capture if it is not suppressed. While this signal suppression framework provides a refreshing new perspective on attentional capture, it cannot fully resolve this debate. To do this, it would have to be demonstrated that task-contingent capture effects in spatial cueing tasks are linked to proactive feature-based suppression preventing attentional capture by salient but irrelevant objects. I argue that there is little evidence if any evidence for such a link. I consider possible reasons why suppression does not seem to play a major role in spatial cueing tasks, and also highlight important general limitations of proactive inhibitory control in visual search.