When sustained attention impairs perception.
Virtually all behavioral and neurophysiological studies have shown that sustained (endogenous, conceptually driven) attention enhances perception. But can this enhancement be held indefinitely? We assessed the time course of attention's effects on contrast sensitivity, reasoning that if attention does indeed boost stimulus strength, the strengthened representation could result in stronger adaptation over time. We found that attention initially enhances contrast sensitivity, but that over time sustained attention can actually impair sensitivity to an attended stimulus.
Ling
Sam
S
Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, New York 10003, USA. ling@nyu.edu
Carrasco
Marisa
M
D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011601:Psychophysics / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors