The attentional blink (AB) is a transient attention cost that is shown when report accuracy for a second target (T2) is reduced when T2 is presented within approximately 500 ms of a first target (T1). Thus, by definition an AB is only observed when T2 accuracy is reduced at short relative to long T1-T2 separations, and the magnitude of the AB is reflected in the change in T2 performance across target separations. However, the designs, analyses, and interpretations of several studies of the AB have suggested a lack of clear definitions about what constitutes a demonstration of the AB, what constitutes a modulation of the AB across participant groups or manipulations, and how AB magnitude might best be represented accurately as a single value for a given individual. In this article, we discuss the important conceptual and methodological issues that should be considered when obtaining, analyzing, and interpreting AB data, and we discuss the pros and cons of various approaches while providing suggestions as to how best to validly represent the AB and its modulations.
When two masked, to-be-attended targets are presented within approximately half a second of each other, performance on the second target (T2) suffers, relative to when the targets are presented further apart in time or when the first target (T1) can be ignored. This phenomenon is known as the attentional blink (AB). Colzato et al. (Psychon Bull Rev 14:1051-1057, 2007) used an individual differences approach to examine whether individual AB magnitude was predicted by individual differences in working memory (WM), using the operation span paradigm (OSPAN). They found that OSPAN score was inversely related to AB magnitude even when a fluid intelligence measure (Raven's SPM) was partialled out. However, it is not clear from this study whether it was the executive control aspect of working memory, the capacity aspect of short-term memory, (or both), that related to AB magnitude. In the present study we used a variety of WM measures that required varying degrees of executive control. OSPAN was negatively related to AB magnitude with Raven's SPM, reading comprehension, reading rate, and digit forward and backward partialled out. Backward and forward digit span did not predict AB magnitude. These results support the conclusion that a "working" executive component of WM predicts temporal limitations of selective attention beyond static STM capacity and general cognitive ability.
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