title: A Boolean map theory of visual attention.
abstract: A theory is presented that attempts to answer two questions. What visual contents can an observer consciously access at one moment?
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  only one feature value (e.g., green) per dimension, but those feature values can be associated (as a group) with multiple spatially precise locations (comprising a single labeled Boolean map). How can an observer voluntarily select what to access?
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  in one of two ways: (a) by selecting one feature value in one dimension (e.g., selecting the color red) or (b) by iteratively combining the output of (a) with a preexisting Boolean map via the Boolean operations of intersection and union. Boolean map theory offers a unified interpretation of a wide variety of visual attention phenomena usually treated in separate literatures. In so doing, it also illuminates the neglected phenomena of attention to structure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. lhuang@princeton.edu
authors.forename: Liqiang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Harold
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pashler
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D003867:Depth Perception; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005133:Eye Movements; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006801:Humans; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011930:Reaction Time; D014796:Visual Perception