Measuring and modeling the trajectory of visual spatial attention.
In a novel choice attention-gating paradigm, observers monitor a stream of 3 x 3 letter arrays until a tonal cue directs them to report 1 row. Analyses of the particular arrays from which reported letters are chosen and of the joint probabilities of reporting pairs of letters are used to derive a theory of attention dynamics. An attention window opens 0.15 s following a cue to attend to a location, remains open (minimally) 0.2 s, and admits information simultaneously from all the newly attended locations. The window dynamics are independent of the distance moved. The theory accounts for about 90% of the variance from the over 400 data points obtained from each of the observers in the 3 experiments reported here. With minor elaborations, it applies to all the principal paradigms used to study the dynamics of visual spatial attention.
Shih
Shui-I
SI
Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, United Kingdom.
Sperling
George
G
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D014796:Visual Perception