title: Upper visual field advantage in localizing a target among distractors.
abstract: Biases exist in many perceptual and cognitive functions. Since visual attention plays an important role in a wide range of perceptual and cognitive processes, any bias in the spatial distribution of attention is likely to be a significant source of perceptual and cognitive asymmetries. An attentional visual field task (AVF) requiring localization of a target among distractors was used to assess possible asymmetries in attentional processing in the vertical meridian. The results showed a bias favoring the upper visual field, suggesting a potentially important role of attention in perceptual and cognitive asymmetries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7650, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; e-mail: jing_feng@ncsu.edu.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; e-mail: ian.spence@utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Spence
keywords: attentional bias; distribution of attention; individual difference; spatial attention