Further evidence for a time-independent shift of the focus of attention.
The separation between stimuli was manipulated in a same-different matching task. In Experiment 1, stimuli were upright Ts and/or Ls, whereas in Experiment 2, they were rotated Ts and/or Ls. In both experiments, mean reaction time (RT) for the same-different judgment did not increase as a function of interletter separation, suggesting either that the time needed to relocate attention was independent of distance, or that the stimuli were processed in parallel. These alternatives were tested in a third experiment, with a diagnostic for parallel processing proposed by Egeth and Dagenbach (1991). The diagnostic indicated that the rotated Ts and Ls in Experiment 2 were processed serially. If serial processing implies the utilization of attention, then the results of Experiment 2 suggest that relocation of attention is time-invariant with respect to distance.
Kwak
H W
HW
Department of Psychology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218.
Dagenbach
D
D
Egeth
H
H
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011601:Psychophysics