Perception of temporal order during the attentional blink: Using stimulus salience to modulate prior entry

Abstract

When multiple targets are presented in rapid sequence, observers frequently confuse the order in which they were presented. The probability of order reversals is known to vary throughout the period of the attentional blink (AB), which refers to impairment in the perception of the second of two targets when it is presented within approximately 500 ms from the first. Our objective was to examine the principle of prior entry (in which perception of temporal order is said to be affected by the relative latency at which each target is processed) as a determinant of the perception of temporal order throughout the AB. In two experiments, three letter targets (T1, T2, T3) were inserted in a stream of digit distractors, with T3 always presented directly after T2. The T1-T2 lag was varied to assess the perception of T2-T3 temporal order throughout the period of the AB. Processing latency was manipulated by means of salience. In Experiment 1, salience of T2 and T3 was manipulated exogenously by coloring the salient target red with all other stimuli being green. In Experiment 2, salience was modulated endogenously by manipulating which of the two targets matched the contents of working memory. Consistent with the principle of prior entry, perception of temporal order in both experiments was enhanced throughout the period of the AB when T2 was salient, and impaired when T3 was salient. Simulations based on the Episodic Simultaneous Type, Serial Token (eSTST) model that incorporates prior-entry, matched the empirical results.Keywords Theoretical and Computational Models . Attentional blink . Selective attention When two stimuli are presented in rapid sequence, observers frequently confuse the order in which they were presented. Among the factors thought to determine the perception of temporal order is the relative amount of attention deployed to the stimuli. That is, the perception of temporal order of two sequential stimuli is determined not only by the actual order of presentation but also by the relative amount of atten-

Global depth perception alters local timing sensitivity

“…This physiological effect could generate Attentional Prior Entry (APE), the phenomenon in which observers perceive attended stimuli sooner than unattended stimuli. Several prior studies have documented these attentional effects in TOJs [16][17][18][19][20]. The connection between attention and TOJs seems relevant given evidence that looming (radially expanding) stimuli capture attention while receding (radially contracting) stimuli do not [21][22][23][24][25][26][27].…”