title: Comparing the time course and efficacy of spatial and feature-based attention.
abstract: We investigated the time course of feature-based attention and compared it to the time course of spatial attention in an experiment with identical stimuli and task. Observers detected a speed increment in a compound motion stimulus preceded by cues that indicated either the target location or direction. The cue-target stimulus-onset-asynchrony (SOA) was varied to assess the time course of the attentional effect. We found that spatial attention was deployed earlier than feature-based attention and that both types of attention improved performance to a similar extent at a longer SOA. Results indicate that attention is a flexible mechanism allowing us to efficiently select task-relevant information based on either spatial or feature dimensions, but that spatial attention exert its effects faster.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, 8th floor, NY 10003, USA. taosheng.liu@nyu.edu
authors.forename: Taosheng
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Sean T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Marisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carrasco
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D009039:Motion Perception; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011601:Psychophysics; D011930:Reaction Time