Covert attention enhances letter identification without affecting channel tuning.
Directing covert attention to the target location enhances sensitivity, but it is not clear how this enhancement comes about. Knowing that a single spatial frequency channel mediates letter identification, we use the critical-band-masking paradigm to investigate whether covert attention affects the spatial frequency tuning of that channel. We find that directing attention to the target location halves threshold energy without affecting the channel's spatial frequency tuning.
Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA. Cigdem.Talgar@med.nyu.edu
Cigdem P
CP
Talgar
Denis G
DG
Pelli
Marisa
M
Carrasco
D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011601:Psychophysics; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology