Cue-guided attention modulates neural responses to distracting features

The impact of prior knowledge about an upcoming distractor (i.e., a negative cue) on performance in a subsequent search task has yielded mixed results. A central question is whether negatively cued features can be preemptively suppressed (i.e., before distractors capture attention) or whether they initially capture attention followed by reactive distractor handling (i.e., after distractors capture attention). Notably, negative cueing benefits tend to emerge when the search task is difficult, yet most prior electrophysiological studies have employed easy search tasks that may discourage negative cue use. Therefore, direct neural evidence for negative cueing effects under difficult search is rare. To address this gap, we conducted two experiments. Experiment 1 manipulated task difficulty by varying the number of task-relevant items while keeping the overall set size constant. Results revealed that negative cues enhanced search efficiency in difficult search (8 task-relevant items), but not in easy search (4 items), suggesting that negative cueing benefits depended on the number of items requiring attention rather than overall set size. Experiment 2 employed EEG during difficult search to delineate the neural underpinnings of distractor processing. ERP results showed that negatively cued distractors elicited a reliable early distractor PD in participants showing a cueing benefit in RT but a distractor N2pc on slow-response trials in participants showing RT cost. While preparatory alpha activity did not differ by cue type, stronger alpha lateralization was associated with larger cueing benefits at the individual level. Collectively, these findings suggest that negative cue use is a flexible, strategic and active process, with its deployment contingent on both task demands and individual differences in control capacity.