Do multielement visual tracking and visual search draw continuously on the same visual attention resources?
Multielement visual tracking and visual search are 2 tasks that are held to require visual-spatial attention. The authors used the attentional operating characteristic (AOC) method to determine whether both tasks draw continuously on the same attentional resource (i.e., whether the 2 tasks are mutually exclusive). The authors found that observers can search and track within the same trial significantly better than would be predicted if the 2 tasks were mutually exclusive. In fact, the AOC for tracking and search is similar to that for tracking and auditory monitoring. The results of additional experiments support an attention-switching account for this high level of dual-task performance in which a single attentional resource is efficiently switched between the tracking and search. The results provide important constraints for architectures of visual selective attention and the mechanisms of multielement tracking.
Alvarez
George A
GA
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. geoalvarez@wjh.harvard.edu
Horowitz
Todd S
TS
Arsenio
Helga C
HC
Dimase
Jennifer S
JS
Wolfe
Jeremy M
JM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D014796:Visual Perception