title: Effects of attention on visual experience during monocular rivalry.
abstract: There is a long-running debate over the extent to which volitional attention can modulate the appearance of visual stimuli. Here we use monocular rivalry between afterimages to explore the effects of attention on the contents of visual experience. In three experiments, we demonstrate that attended afterimages are seen for longer periods, on average, than unattended afterimages. This occurs both when a feature of the afterimage is attended directly and when a frame surrounding the afterimage is attended. The results of these experiments show that volitional attention can dramatically influence the contents of visual experience.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, 6207 Moore Hall, Hanover, NH 03755, USA. Eric.A.Reavis@Dartmouth.edu
authors.forename: Eric A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Reavis
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Kohler
authors.forename: Gideon P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Caplovitz
authors.forename: Thalia P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Wheatley
authors.forename: Peter U
authors.initials: PU
authors.lastname: Tse
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000360:Afterimage / Q000502:physiology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D023882:Dominance, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D015349:Vision, Monocular / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult