title: Temporal limitations in the effective binding of attended target attributes in the mutual masking of visual objects.
abstract: The problem of feature binding has been examined under conditions of distributed attention or with spatially dispersed stimuli. We studied binding by asking whether selective attention to a feature of a masked object enables perceptual access to the other features of that object using conditions in which spatial attention was directed at a single location where all objects appeared. In an identification condition, the task required reporting the same property of each object. High rates of identification showed good perceptual availability. In a search condition, the task required reporting the property (e.g., shape) that was associated with a specific value of the searched property (e.g., surface texture) of the same object. Focusing of attention on a target's searched property value did not result in a high rate of identifying the target's other property, and strong object masking was found. Backward masking between spatially superimposed visual objects appears to be primarily due to a difficulty in feature binding of a target object rather than to a substitution of an integrated object by the following stimulus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia.
authors.forename: Karita
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hommuk
authors.forename: Talis
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bachmann
mesh_terms: D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011601:Psychophysics; D011930:Reaction Time; D013998:Time Perception; D055815:Young Adult