Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published May 8, 2009 | Published
Journal Article Open

Attentional selection of noncontiguous locations: The spotlight is only transiently "split"

Abstract

It is still a matter of debate whether observers can attend simultaneously to more than one location. Using essentially the same paradigm as was used previously by N. P. Bichot, K. R. Cave, and H. Pashler (1999), we demonstrate that their finding of an attentional "split" between separate target locations only reflects the early phase of attentional selection. Our subjects were asked to compare the shapes (circle or square) of 2 oddly colored targets within an array of 8 stimuli. After a varying stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), 8 letters were flashed at the previous stimulus locations, followed by a mask. For a given SOA, the performance of subjects at reporting letters in each location was taken to reflect the distribution of spatial attention. In particular, by considering the proportion of trials in which none or both of the target letters were reported, we were able to infer the respective amount of attention allocated to each target without knowing, on a trial-by-trial basis which location (if any) was receiving the most attentional resources. Our results show that for SOAs under 100–150 ms, attention can be equally split between the two targets, a conclusion compatible with previous reports. However, with longer SOAs, this attentional division can no longer be sustained and attention ultimately settles at the location of one single stimulus.

Additional Information

© 2009 ARVO. Received September 23, 2008; published May 8, 2009. Part of this work has been presented earlier in abstract form (Hamker, F. H., & VanRullen, R. (2002). The time course of attentional selection among competing locations [Abstract]. Journal of Vision, 2(7):7, 7a, http://journalofvision.org/2/7/7/). This work was supported by the German Science Foundation (DFG HA2630/2-1) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research Grant (BMBF 01GW0653), the CNRS (Grant CNRS-USA), the ANR (06JCJC-0154), the Fyssen Foundation, and the European Science Foundation (EURYI). We wish to acknowledge Kyle Cave and an anonymous referee for helpful advice and suggestions and Christof Koch for his continued support.

Attached Files

Published - Dubois2009p4734J_Vis.pdf

Files

Dubois2009p4734J_Vis.pdf
Files (536.8 kB)
Name Size Download all
md5:94502b4493504df83cdacebf57438349
536.8 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
September 14, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023