title: Is the attentional blink effect located in short-term memory?
abstract: The attentional blink (AB) effect is characterized by a failure to detect a second target following the identification of a previous target in a RSVP stream. This effect has been attributed to capacity limitations at a central level of visual information processes. Postperceptual models suppose that the AB locus is located in short-term memory. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the influence of a short-term memory deficit on the AB effect in a patient with such a deficit. The three main results of this study are (1) the persistence of an AB effect, (2) a large number of T1 missed identifications and (3) a T2 detection deficit for a specific delay (367 ms). These results indicate that a short-term memory deficit disrupts the processing of each target (T1 and T2) but does not product an abolition of the AB effect.
authors.affiliation: Hôpital Avicenne, Service de Neurologie, Bobigny, France. christine.moroni@avc.ap-hop-paris.fr
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Moroni
authors.forename: Muriel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boucart
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fery
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Claes
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Belin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001767:Blinking / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index