Perception of temporal order is impaired during the time course of the attentional blink.

Spalek, Thomas M.; Lagroix, Hayley E. P.; Yanko, Matthew R.; Lollo, Vincent Di

doi:10.1037/a0025050

Cited by 20 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…In addressing these matters, we use the episodic simultaneous type-serial token (eSTST) model proposed by Wyble and colleagues as our starting point ; see also Bowman & Wyble, 2007). This model is a neural network implementation of a theory of attention and WMC, which has been shown to be capable of simulating both behavioral and electrophysiological indices of attentional selection and memory consolidation in the attentional blink, and a number of related phenomena (e.g., Craston, Wyble, Chennu, & Bowman, 2009;Dell'Acqua, Wyble, Dux, & Jolicoeur, 2012;Lagroix et al, 2012;Spalek, Lagroix, Yanko, & Di Lollo, 2012;Wyble et al, 2011). Furthermore, in comparison to other accounts of the role of WMC in dual-task interference (e.g., Chun & Potter, 1995;Dehaene, Sergent, & Changeux, 2003;Jolicoeur & Dell'Acqua, 1998;Shih, 2008;Taatgen et al, 2009; see also Zylberberg et al, 2010), the eSTST account appears especially well suited to explain the current findings because it is the only account that does not assume that WMC involves an immutable serial processing bottleneck, and it also offers a mechanism that can explain how consolidation may be disturbed by a trailing target.…”

Section: A Possible Account Of the Current Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond a mask and against the bottleneck: Retroactive dual-task interference during working memory consolidation of a masked visual target.

Nieuwenstein¹,

Wyble

2014

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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While studies on visual memory commonly assume that the consolidation of a visual stimulus into working memory is interrupted by a trailing mask, studies on dual-task interference suggest that the consolidation of a stimulus can continue for several hundred milliseconds after a mask. As a result, estimates of the time course of working memory consolidation differ more than an order of magnitude. Here, we contrasted these opposing views by examining if and for how long the processing of a masked display of visual stimuli can be disturbed by a trailing 2-alternative forced choice task (2-AFC; a color discrimination task or a visual or auditory parity judgment task). The results showed that the presence of the 2-AFC task produced a pronounced retroactive interference effect that dissipated across stimulus onset asynchronies of 250 -1,000 ms, indicating that the processing elicited by the 2-AFC task interfered with the gradual consolidation of the earlier shown stimuli. Furthermore, this interference effect occurred regardless of whether the to-be-remembered stimuli comprised a string of letters or an unfamiliar complex visual shape, and it occurred regardless of whether these stimuli were masked. Conversely, the interference effect was reduced when the memory load for the 1st task was reduced, or when the 2nd task was a color detection task that did not require decision making. Taken together, these findings show that the formation of a durable and consciously accessible working memory trace for a briefly shown visual stimulus can be disturbed by a trailing 2-AFC task for up to several hundred milliseconds after the stimulus has been masked. By implication, the current findings challenge the common view that working memory consolidation involves an immutable central processing bottleneck, and they also make clear that consolidation does not stop when a stimulus is masked.Keywords: working-memory consolidation, backward masking, attentional blink, psychological refractory period, retroactive dual-task interferenceIn dealing with a rapid and ever-changing stream of visual sensory input, the storage of information in working memory forms a central requirement for many perceptual and cognitive tasks. While considerable insight has been gained into the quality and quantity of information that can be stored in working memory (e.g., Prinzmetal, Amiri, Allen, & Edwards, 1998;Wilken & Ma, 2004;Zhang & Luck, 2008), the mechanisms that mediate the initial transfer and consolidation of visual information into working memory remain poorly understood. As a case in point, consider the basic but important questions of how long it might take to consolidate a familiar visual stimulus such as a letter, and how this process might be affected when the letter is masked-a common procedure in studies on visual perception, attention, and memory. According to one influential perspective, the appearance of a mask would interrupt consolidation, and therefore the finding that people can recall about four letters from a 100-ms masked display en...

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Section: A Possible Account Of the Current Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond a mask and against the bottleneck: Retroactive dual-task interference during working memory consolidation of a masked visual target.

Nieuwenstein¹,

Wyble

2014

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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“…The highest frequency of order errors was observed at Lag 2, with Lags 1 and 7 showing considerably fewer reversals. Spalek et al (2012) offered a theoretical account of their results in terms of the Episodic Simultaneous Type, Serial Token (eSTST) m odel of Wyble, Bo wman , a nd Nieuwenstein (2009), which incorporates the principle of prior entry. Other models have been proposed that also utilize prior entry to account for order reversals.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Spalek et al (2012) tested this conjecture by manipulating the latency of attention deployment to two successive targets (T2 and T3, as noted above) in two ways. One way was to manipulate the presence/ absence of distractors intervening between T1 and T2 in the RSVP stream.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second way in which the latency of attention deployment was manipulated in the Spalek et al (2012) study was by varying the T1-T2 lag. In terms of eSTST, this manipulation affects the suppression of the blaster.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This was done by Spalek, Lagroix, Yanko, and Di Lollo (2012) who used a variant of the AB paradigm in which three letter targets (T1, T2, T3) were inserted in an RSVP stream of digit distractors. The temporal lag between T1 and T2 was 100, 200, or 700 ms (Lags 1, 2, and 7).…”

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

Lagroix

Patten

Lollo

et al. 2016

Atten Percept Psychophys

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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-

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The exogenous and endogenous control of attentional focusing

Jefferies

Enns

Lollo

2017

Psychological Research

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Selective visual attention involves prioritizing both the location (orienting) and distribution (focusing) of processing. To date, much more research has examined attentional orienting than focusing. One of the most well-established findings is that orienting can be exogenous, as when a unique change in luminance draws attention to a spatial location (e.g., Theeuwes in Atten Percept Psychophys 51:599-606, 1992; Yantis and Jonides in J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 10:601, 1984), and endogenous, as when a red distractor shape diverts attention when one is looking for a red target (e.g., Bacon and Egeth in Percept Psychophys 55:485-496, 1994; Folk et al. in J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 18:1030, 1992). Here we ask whether attentional focusing-the broadening and contracting of prioritized processing-is influenced by the same two factors. Our methodology involved a dual-stream attentional blink task; participants monitored two spatially separated streams of items for two targets that could appear unpredictably either in the same stream or in opposite streams. The spatial distribution of attention was assessed by examining second-target accuracy in relation to inter-target lag and target location (same or opposite streams). In Experiment 1, we found that attentional contracting was more rapid when the targets differed in luminance from the distractor items. In Experiments 2 and 3, we found that the rate of attentional contracting was slower when there were task-relevant distractors in the stream opposite the first target. These results indicate that the rate of attentional focusing, like orienting, can be modulated by both exogenous and endogenous mechanisms.

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Perception of temporal order is impaired during the time course of the attentional blink.

Cited by 20 publications

References 37 publications

Beyond a mask and against the bottleneck: Retroactive dual-task interference during working memory consolidation of a masked visual target.

Beyond a mask and against the bottleneck: Retroactive dual-task interference during working memory consolidation of a masked visual target.

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

The exogenous and endogenous control of attentional focusing

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