The present study concerns two cognitive processes that influence performance in even the most typical tasks: exogenous attention and spontaneous arousal. Exogenous attention is an automatic mechanism of visual attention, which orients it to salient and relevant environmental stimuli. Spontaneous arousal characterizes the task-independent changes of the brain’s global reactivity state. In theory, visual attention registers stimuli, while arousal sets the priority among them. Our research addresses this association by testing how the levels of arousal relate to the effective use of exogenous attention and task performance. Based on the automaticity of exogenous attention and the relatively robust quadratic shape of arousal effects, we expected an inverted-U shape and a U shape relationship for the respective constructs. The results followed the general quadratic shape of arousal effects, otherwise known as the Yerkes-Dodson Law. However, the curve of arousal and exogenous attention use was of a U, and not an inverted-U, shape. The persistent U shape relationship is indicative of arousal and exogenous attention effects being of an additive character. Depending on their state, both processes can facilitate or hinder performance. We conclude that each process influences the magnitude of the other’s influence, but not the directionality of its effect. The study improves our understanding of this relationship, and therefore how situational circumstances lead to advantageous or disadvantageous behavior.

Keywords: spontaneous arousal, exogenous attention, effective use of attention, shifts of attention, task performance.