The attentional blink with targets in different spatial locations

Abstract

When two targets (Tl and T2) are displayed in rapid succession, accuracy ofT2 identification varies as a function of the temporal lag between the targets (attentional blink, AB). In some studies, performance has been found to be most impaired at Lag I-namely, when T2 followed Tl directly. In other studies, T2 performance at Lag 1 has been virtually unimpaired (Lag 1 sparing). In the present work, we examined how Lag 1 sparing is affected by attentional switches between targets displayed in the same location or in different locations. We found that Lag 1 sparing does not occur when a spatial shift is required between Tl and T2. This suggests that attention cannot be switched to a new location while the system is busy processing another stimulus. The results are explained by a modified version of an attentional gating model

The attentional blink and lag 1 sparing are nonspatial

“…Any previous switch costs (expressed as the absence of lag 1 sparing) may thus have reflected a switch between hemifields, rather than a pure spatial cost. We point out, however, that the same costs have also been found when T1 and T2 were presented in the same hemifield (Kristjánsson & Nakayama, 2002), when T1 was presented centrally and T2 at eccentricity (Visser, Zuvic, et al, 1999; this situation is most reminiscent of the present one), or when T1 and T2 were positioned on the vertical meridian (Potter et al, 2005;Potter et al, 2002).…”

Spatiotemporal Segregation in Visual Search: Evidence From Parietal Lesions.

“…In one condition, participants had to detect the first target from the horizontal streams and the second target from the vertical streams. Like Visser et al (1999), Duncan et al found that second target detection was impaired at shorter SOAs. Furthermore, Joseph et al (1997) showed that an RSVP target-detection task at fixation subsequently interferes with visual search for an orientation-defined target in more eccentric locations, again showing that the attentional blink spreads beyond the location of the first target.…”

“Pseudoextinction”: Asymmetries in simultaneous attentional selection.

“…Yet lag-1 sparing is rarely found when T1 and T2 appear in different spatial locations (Visser, Zuvic, Bischof, & Di Lollo, 1999;cf. Lunau & Olivers, 2010), suggesting that parallel tokenization may not operate under these circumstances.…”