Intuitively, many people believe they are aware of all the information available in their surroundings. However, that may not be correct. This paper identifies key visual features that make up the information being shared via television broadcasts. Specifically, this project uses a cognitive science approach to look at the competing hypotheses about the role of motion in attentional capture. The attention literature suggests that attention will switch from one stimulus to another when the second stimulus is either new to the environment or "odd" to the environment. This paper reports on a critical test between three competing hypotheses (new object, unique event, and behavioral urgency) to better understand how to capture attention in a realistic television view setting. Using a within subjects design, subjects viewed video and then were asked if they recognized any of the secondary stimuli manipulations. The new object hypothesis was supported, while the other hypotheses were not.
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