{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,27]],"date-time":"2026-10-27T18:36:49Z","timestamp":1793126209838,"version":"4.5.0"},"update-to":[{"DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1014310","type":"new_version","label":"New version","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,27]],"date-time":"2026-10-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1793059200000}}],"reference-count":49,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,21]],"date-time":"2026-10-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1792540800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100017939","name":"Sichuan Provincial Postdoctoral Science Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["No. TB2025066"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["No. TB2025066"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100017939","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001659","name":"Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["SH 166\/10-1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SH 166\/10-1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001659","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.ploscompbiol.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS Comput Biol"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Real-world distractors occur in environments whose states change at different rates. We asked whether such volatility alters initial overt oculomotor allocation, later target verification and response commitment, or both. Observers performed an additional-singleton search task with concurrent eye tracking while distractor presence followed high- or low-volatility sequences, with overall distractor prevalence held constant. Trial-pooled oculomotor capture was higher under high volatility, a pattern that appears to indicate altered filtering. Matching the same-location run position removed that difference, with no detectable difference in capture across volatility regimes at matched run position. The pooled capture effect was therefore consistent with a structural consequence of the volatility manipulation, which enriched high-volatility blocks with early-run positions where capture is intrinsically high. The volatility effect itself appeared on distractor-absent trials. Under high volatility, response times were longer, fixations more frequent, final-target dwell longer, and errors fewer, while target-acquisition latency itself was unchanged. Same-location repetition learning showed no detectable difference in slope across regimes. A hierarchical drift-diffusion model (DDM) and a complementary volatility Kalman-filter (VKF) comparison converged in showing that manual responses carried both boundary-related and drift-related structure. With distractor frequency held constant, the per-trial effect of volatility therefore emerged after the first saccade as an increase in response caution rather than in oculomotor capture. This pattern is consistent with precision-weighted adjustment to environmental uncertainty.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1014310","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,21]],"date-time":"2026-10-21T17:53:23Z","timestamp":1792605203000},"page":"e1014310","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pcbi.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Environmental volatility is associated with adaptive caution in visual search"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"22","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0562-0298","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Nan","family":"Qiu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Electronic Science and Technology of China","place":["Chengdu, China"],"department":["The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation"]},{"name":"LMU Munich","place":["Munich, Germany"],"department":["Neuro-cognitive Psychology, Department of Psychology"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fredrik","family":"Allenmark","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"LMU Munich","place":["Munich, Germany"],"department":["Neuro-cognitive Psychology, Department of Psychology"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Siyi","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"LMU Munich","place":["Munich, Germany"],"department":["Neuro-cognitive Psychology, Department of Psychology"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hermann J.","family":"M\u00fcller","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"LMU Munich","place":["Munich, Germany"],"department":["Neuro-cognitive Psychology, Department of Psychology"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhuanghua","family":"Shi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"LMU Munich","place":["Munich, Germany"],"department":["Neuro-cognitive Psychology, Department of Psychology"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,21]]},"reference":[{"issue":"9","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1214","DOI":"10.1038\/nn1954","article-title":"Learning the value of information in an uncertain world","volume":"10","author":"TEJ Behrens","year":"2007","journal-title":"Nat Neurosci"},{"issue":"7","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1007963","article-title":"A simple model for learning in volatile environments","volume":"16","author":"P Piray","year":"2020","journal-title":"PLoS Comput Biol"},{"key":"pcbi.1014310.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.7554\/eLife.103734.3","article-title":"Humans adapt rationally to approximate estimates of uncertainty","volume":"14","author":"E Pulcu","year":"2025","journal-title":"Elife"},{"issue":"2","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"127","DOI":"10.1038\/nrn2787","article-title":"The free-energy principle: A unified brain theory","volume":"11","author":"K Friston","year":"2010","journal-title":"Nature Reviews. Neuroscience"},{"issue":"1","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10746","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-022-14939-8","article-title":"Individual beliefs about temporal continuity explain variation of perceptual biases","volume":"12","author":"S Glasauer","year":"2022","journal-title":"Sci Rep"},{"issue":"4","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"681","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuron.2005.04.026","article-title":"Uncertainty, neuromodulation, and attention","volume":"46","author":"AJ Yu","year":"2005","journal-title":"Neuron"},{"issue":"6","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2648","DOI":"10.3758\/s13423-025-02736-z","article-title":"Signal suppression 2.0: An updated account of attentional capture and suppression","volume":"32","author":"N Gaspelin","year":"2025","journal-title":"Psychon Bull Rev"},{"key":"pcbi.1014310.ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1195","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2014.01195","article-title":"Probability cueing of distractor locations: Both intertrial facilitation and statistical learning mediate interference reduction","volume":"5","author":"H Goschy","year":"2014","journal-title":"Front Psychol"},{"issue":"10","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"860","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tics.2022.06.001","article-title":"What to expect where and when: how statistical learning drives visual selection","volume":"26","author":"J Theeuwes","year":"2022","journal-title":"Trends Cogn Sci"},{"issue":"1","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref010","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"13","DOI":"10.1037\/xhp0000472","article-title":"Statistical regularities modulate attentional capture","volume":"44","author":"B Wang","year":"2018","journal-title":"J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform"},{"issue":"3","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref011","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"622","DOI":"10.3758\/s13414-017-1477-4","article-title":"Region-based shielding of visual search from salient distractors: Target detection is impaired with same- but not different-dimension distractors","volume":"80","author":"M Sauter","year":"2018","journal-title":"Atten Percept Psychophys"},{"issue":"9","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref012","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1146","DOI":"10.1037\/xhp0000652","article-title":"Probability cueing of singleton-distractor locations in visual search: Priority-map- versus dimension-based inhibition?","volume":"45","author":"B Zhang","year":"2019","journal-title":"J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform"},{"issue":"3","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref013","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"246","DOI":"10.1037\/xhp0000986","article-title":"Does it help to expect distraction? Attentional capture is attenuated by high distractor frequency but not by trial-to-trial predictability","volume":"48","author":"L Bogaerts","year":"2022","journal-title":"J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform"},{"issue":"35","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref014","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6953","DOI":"10.1523\/JNEUROSCI.0593-19.2019","article-title":"Learning What Is Irrelevant or Relevant: Expectations Facilitate Distractor Inhibition and Target Facilitation through Distinct Neural Mechanisms","volume":"39","author":"D van Moorselaar","year":"2019","journal-title":"J Neurosci"},{"key":"pcbi.1014310.ref015","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1098","DOI":"10.1080\/13506285.2024.2438410","article-title":"Influence of cross-trial distractor volatility on statistical learning of spatial distractor suppression","volume":"32","author":"N Qiu","year":"2024","journal-title":"Visual Cognition"},{"key":"pcbi.1014310.ref016","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"166","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuroimage.2017.05.016","article-title":"Attentional capture in visual search: Capture and post-capture dynamics revealed by EEG","volume":"156","author":"HR Liesefeld","year":"2017","journal-title":"Neuroimage"},{"issue":"1","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref017","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10","DOI":"10.3758\/s13414-025-03180-w","article-title":"Re-examining electrophysiological evidence for proactive suppression of salient visual distractors","volume":"88","author":"JJ McDonald","year":"2025","journal-title":"Atten Percept Psychophys"},{"issue":"1","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref018","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"97","DOI":"10.1016\/0010-0285(80)90005-5","article-title":"A feature-integration theory of attention","volume":"12","author":"AM Treisman","year":"1980","journal-title":"Cogn Psychol"},{"issue":"4","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref019","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"746","DOI":"10.1037\/0096-1523.30.4.749","article-title":"The role of stimulus-driven and goal-driven control in saccadic visual selection","volume":"30","author":"W van Zoest","year":"2004","journal-title":"J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform"},{"issue":"4","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref020","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1060","DOI":"10.3758\/s13423-020-01859-9","article-title":"Guided Search 6.0: An updated model of visual search","volume":"28","author":"JM Wolfe","year":"2021","journal-title":"Psychon Bull Rev"},{"issue":"10","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref021","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3744","DOI":"10.1007\/s10803-020-04828-2","article-title":"Acquisition and use of \u201cPriors\u201d in Autism: Typical in deciding where to look, atypical in deciding what is there","volume":"51","author":"F Allenmark","year":"2021","journal-title":"J Autism Dev Disord"},{"key":"pcbi.1014310.ref022","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1045","DOI":"10.1080\/13506285.2024.2393467","article-title":"Dynamic suppression of likely distractor locations: Task-critical modulation","volume":"32","author":"F Allenmark","year":"2024","journal-title":"Visual Cognition"},{"issue":"5","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref023","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1445","DOI":"10.3758\/s13414-023-02820-3","article-title":"Terms of debate: Consensus definitions to guide the scientific discourse on visual distraction","volume":"86","author":"HR Liesefeld","year":"2024","journal-title":"Atten Percept Psychophys"},{"issue":"7","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref024","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1935","DOI":"10.3758\/s13414-016-1115-6","article-title":"Intertrial priming due to distractor repetition is eliminated in homogeneous contexts","volume":"78","author":"T Feldmann-W\u00fcstefeld","year":"2016","journal-title":"Atten Percept Psychophys"},{"issue":"2","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref025","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"142","DOI":"10.1080\/13506285.2019.1617376","article-title":"Suppression history of distractor location biases attentional and oculomotor control","volume":"27","author":"V Di Caro","year":"2019","journal-title":"Visual Cognition"},{"key":"pcbi.1014310.ref026","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"108","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cortex.2020.11.016","article-title":"Post-capture processes contribute to statistical learning of distractor locations in visual search","volume":"135","author":"M Sauter","year":"2021","journal-title":"Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior"},{"issue":"10","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref027","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1780","DOI":"10.1162\/jocn_a_01902","article-title":"Beyond drift diffusion models: Fitting a broad class of decision and reinforcement learning models with HDDM","volume":"34","author":"A Fengler","year":"2022","journal-title":"J Cogn Neurosci"},{"issue":"4","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref028","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"873","DOI":"10.1162\/neco.2008.12-06-420","article-title":"The diffusion decision model: Theory and data for two-choice decision tasks","volume":"20","author":"R Ratcliff","year":"2008","journal-title":"Neural Comput"},{"issue":"4","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref029","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"433","DOI":"10.1163\/156856897X00357","article-title":"The Psychophysics Toolbox","volume":"10","author":"DH Brainard","year":"2008","journal-title":"Spatial Vision"},{"issue":"10","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref030","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"798","DOI":"10.1016\/S0960-9822(01)00183-X","article-title":"Separate visual representations for perception and action revealed by saccadic eye movements","volume":"11","author":"DC Burr","year":"2001","journal-title":"Curr Biol"},{"key":"pcbi.1014310.ref031","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"39","DOI":"10.3389\/fnhum.2011.00039","article-title":"A bayesian foundation for individual learning under uncertainty","volume":"5","author":"C Mathys","year":"2011","journal-title":"Front Hum Neurosci"},{"key":"pcbi.1014310.ref032","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"641","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev-psych-122414-033645","article-title":"Sequential sampling models in cognitive neuroscience: Advantages, applications, and extensions","volume":"67","author":"BU Forstmann","year":"2016","journal-title":"Annu Rev Psychol"},{"issue":"7","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref033","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"293","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tics.2009.04.005","article-title":"The free-energy principle: A rough guide to the brain?","volume":"13","author":"K Friston","year":"2009","journal-title":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences"},{"key":"pcbi.1014310.ref034","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"825","DOI":"10.3389\/fnhum.2014.00825","article-title":"Uncertainty in perception and the Hierarchical Gaussian Filter","volume":"8","author":"CD Mathys","year":"2014","journal-title":"Front Hum Neurosci"},{"issue":"6","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref035","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"657","DOI":"10.3758\/BF03209251","article-title":"Priming of pop-out: I. Role of features","volume":"22","author":"V Maljkovic","year":"1994","journal-title":"Mem Cognit"},{"issue":"7","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref036","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"977","DOI":"10.3758\/BF03206826","article-title":"Priming of pop-out: II. The role of position","volume":"58","author":"V Maljkovic","year":"1996","journal-title":"Percept Psychophys"},{"key":"pcbi.1014310.ref037","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Allenmark F, Yu H, M\u00fcller HJ, Shi Z, Frings C. Distractor-response binding influences visual search. In: bioRxiv, 2024. 1\u201318. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1101\/2024.03.13.584838","DOI":"10.1101\/2024.03.13.584838"},{"issue":"1","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref038","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"125","DOI":"10.1037\/xhp0000594","article-title":"Evidence for second-order singleton suppression based on probabilistic expectations","volume":"45","author":"B-Y Won","year":"2019","journal-title":"J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform"},{"issue":"11","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref039","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1250","DOI":"10.1037\/xhp0001054","article-title":"Learning to suppress likely distractor locations in visual search is driven by the local distractor frequency","volume":"48","author":"F Allenmark","year":"2022","journal-title":"J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform"},{"issue":"11","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref040","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1315","DOI":"10.1016\/j.visres.2008.02.006","article-title":"Expectancies modulate attentional capture by salient color singletons","volume":"48","author":"T Geyer","year":"2008","journal-title":"Vision Res"},{"issue":"1","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref041","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1037\/0096-1523.35.1.1","article-title":"Attentional capture by salient color singleton distractors is modulated by top-down dimensional set","volume":"35","author":"HJ M\u00fcller","year":"2009","journal-title":"J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform"},{"issue":"6","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref042","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1114","DOI":"10.1177\/17470218211047859","article-title":"Impaired selection of a previously ignored singleton: Evidence for salience map plastic changes","volume":"75","author":"M Turatto","year":"2022","journal-title":"Q J Exp Psychol (Hove)"},{"issue":"1","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref043","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1093\/cercor\/bhad453","article-title":"Neural mechanisms of sequential dependence in time perception: The impact of prior task and memory processing","volume":"34","author":"S Cheng","year":"2024","journal-title":"Cereb Cortex"},{"issue":"14","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref044","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6","DOI":"10.1167\/17.14.6","article-title":"Serial dependencies act directly on perception","volume":"17","author":"GM Cicchini","year":"2017","journal-title":"J Vis"},{"issue":"5","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref045","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"738","DOI":"10.1038\/nn.3689","article-title":"Serial dependence in visual perception","volume":"17","author":"J Fischer","year":"2014","journal-title":"Nat Neurosci"},{"issue":"7","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref046","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"493","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tics.2017.04.011","article-title":"Serial dependence across perception, attention, and memory","volume":"21","author":"A Kiyonaga","year":"2017","journal-title":"Trends Cogn Sci"},{"issue":"4","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref047","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"825","DOI":"10.1111\/bjop.12728","article-title":"Opposing sequential biases in direction and time reproduction: Influences of task relevance and working memory","volume":"115","author":"S Cheng","year":"2024","journal-title":"Br J Psychol"},{"issue":"4","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref048","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"590","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cub.2017.01.006","article-title":"Opposite effects of recent history on perception and decision","volume":"27","author":"M Fritsche","year":"2017","journal-title":"Curr Biol"},{"issue":"4","key":"pcbi.1014310.ref049","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1396","DOI":"10.1111\/bjop.70070","article-title":"Serial dependence in time perception requires consistent motor responses, not shared memory alone","volume":"117","author":"J Wu","year":"2026","journal-title":"Br J Psychol"}],"updated-by":[{"DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1014310","type":"new_version","label":"New version","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,27]],"date-time":"2026-10-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1793059200000}}],"container-title":["PLOS Computational Biology"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1014310","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,27]],"date-time":"2026-10-27T18:23:10Z","timestamp":1793125390000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1014310"}},"subtitle":[],"editor":[{"given":"Jian","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Birmingham","place":["UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"editor"}]}],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,21]]},"references-count":49,"journal-issue":{"issue":"10","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,21]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1014310","relation":{},"ISSN":["1553-7358"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1553-7358","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,21]]}}}