Theeuwes Lab Publications

For an up-to-date list of publications, including links to the papers, please visit my Google Scholar profile. see below for specific publications.

For more information about my professional profile, please visit my LinkedIn page.

For a complete CV, including publications, grants, and other academic activities, please visit my CV page.

Reviews/Comments

Theeuwes, J. (2026). 35+ years of the additional singleton task: Design features and guidelines for interpreting results. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics.

Theeuwes, J. (2025). Attentional capture and control. Annual Review of Psychology, 76, 251–273.

Liesefeld, H. R., Lamy, D., Gaspelin, N., Geng, J. J., Kerzel, D., Liesefeld, A. M., Lleras, A., Luck, S. J., Müller, H. J., Theeuwes, J., Wang, B., & Wolfe, J. M. (2024). Terms of debate: Consensus definitions to guide the scientific discourse on visual distraction. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics.

Theeuwes, J. (2023). The attentional capture debate: When can we avoid salient distractors and when not? Journal of Cognition, 6, Article 35.

Theeuwes, J. (2023). The attentional window, search difficulty and search modes: A reply to commentaries on Theeuwes (2023). Journal of Cognition, 6, Article 40.

Theeuwes, J., Bogaerts, L., & van Moorselaar, D. (2022). What to expect where and when: How statistical learning drives visual selection. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26, 860–872.

Wöstmann, M., Alavash, M., Obleser, J., Tune, S., Rimmele, J. M., Henry, M. J., Fiedler, L., Scharinger, M., Wilsch, A., Herrmann, B., Maess, B., & Theeuwes, J. (2022). Ten simple rules to study distractor suppression. Progress in Neurobiology, 213, Article 102269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pneurobio.2022.102269

Theeuwes, J. (2021). Self-explaining roads: What does visual cognition tell us about designing safer roads? Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 6, Article 15.

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

Theeuwes, J. (2021). Response to commentaries to Luck et al. (2021). Progress toward resolving the attentional capture debate. Visual Cognition, 29, 637–643.

Theeuwes, J., & Failing, M. (2020). Attentional selection: Top-down, bottom-up and history-based biases. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108891288

Theeuwes, J. (2019). Goal-driven, stimulus-driven, and history-driven selection. Current Opinion in Psychology, 29, 97–101.

Theeuwes, J. (2018). Visual selection: Usually fast and automatic; seldom slow and volitional. Journal of Cognition, 1, Article 29.

Theeuwes, J. (2018). Visual selection: Usually fast and automatic; seldom slow and volitional: A reply to commentaries. Journal of Cognition, 1, Article 21.

Failing, M., & Theeuwes, J. (2018). Selection history: How reward modulates selectivity of visual attention. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25, 514–538.

Awh, E., Belopolsky, A. V., & Theeuwes, J. (2012). Top-down versus bottom-up attentional control: A failed theoretical dichotomy. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16, 437–443.

Theeuwes, J. (2010). Top-down and bottom-up control of visual selection. Acta Psychologica, 135, 77–99.

Koelewijn, T., Bronkhorst, A., & Theeuwes, J. (2010). Attention and the multiple stages of multisensory integration: A review of audiovisual studies. Acta Psychologica, 134, 372–384.

Mulckhuyse, M., & Theeuwes, J. (2010). Unconscious attentional orienting to exogenous cues: A review of the literature. Acta Psychologica, 134, 299–309.

Theeuwes, J., & Godthelp, H. (1995). Self-explaining roads. Safety Science, 19(2–3), 217–225.

Theeuwes, J. (1994). Endogenous and exogenous control of visual selection. Perception, 23, 429–440.

Theeuwes, J. (1993). Visual selective attention: A theoretical analysis. Acta Psychologica, 83, 93–154.

Methods/techniques

Duncan, D. H., Forschack, N., van Moorselaar, D., Müller, M. M., & Theeuwes, J. (2025). Learning modulates early encephalographic responses to distracting stimuli: A combined SSVEP and ERP study. Journal of Neuroscience, 45(21), Article e1973242025. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1973-24.2025

Duncan, D. H., van Moorselaar, D., & Theeuwes, J. (2023). Pinging the brain to reveal the hidden attentional priority map using encephalography. Nature Communications, 14, Article 4749. doi:10.1038/s41467-023-40405-8

Li, A. S., Bogaerts, L., & Theeuwes, J. (2024). Neural representations of predicted events: Evidence from time-resolved EEG decoding. bioRxiv. doi:10.1101/2024.01.05.574347

Mathôt, S., Schreij, D., & Theeuwes, J. (2012). OpenSesame: An open-source, graphical experiment builder for the social sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 44(2), 314–324. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-011-0168-7

Mathôt, S., Cristino, F., Gilchrist, I. D., & Theeuwes, J. (2012). A simple way to estimate similarity between pairs of eye movement sequences. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 5(1), Article 4, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.5.1.4

Cristino, F., Mathôt, S., Theeuwes, J., & Gilchrist, I. D. (2010). ScanMatch: A novel method for comparing fixation sequences. Behavior Research Methods, 42(3), 692–700. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.42.3.692