Figure 1.

Schematic illustration of a critical trial sequence in Experiments 1–4, along with all possible unexpected objects used in each experiment. The timing of the displays was the same for all four experiments: A fixation dot appeared for 1,000 ms, followed by the cross for 200 ms, and then by a mask. On the critical trial, an unexpected object replaced the fixation dot while the cross was present. The mask in Experiment 1 was black and white because the unexpected objects (face stimuli) were the same colors as well. Experiments 2–4 used a color mask because the unexpected objects were colored (flags in Experiment 2 and petrol company logos in Experiments 3 and 4).