title: The role of executive attention in object substitution masking.
abstract: It was long thought that a key characteristic of object substitution masking (OSM) was the requirement for spatial attention to be dispersed for the mask to impact visual sensitivity. However, recent studies have provided evidence questioning whether spatial attention interacts with OSM magnitude, suggesting that the previous reports reflect the impact of performance being at ceiling for the low attention load conditions. Another technique that has been employed to modulate attention in OSM paradigms involves presenting the target stimulus foveally, but with another demanding task shown immediately prior, and thus taxing executive/temporal attention. Under such conditions, when the two tasks occur in close temporal proximity relatively to greater temporal separation, masking is increased. However this effect could also be influenced by performance being at ceiling in some conditions. Here, we manipulated executive attention for a foveated target using a dual-task paradigm. Critically, ceiling performance was avoided by thresholding the target stimulus prior to it being presented under OSM conditions. We found no evidence for an interaction between executive attention load and masking. Collectively, along with the previous findings, our results provide compelling evidence that OSM as a phenomenon occurs independently of attention.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia. h.l.filmer@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Hannah L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Filmer
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia.
authors.forename: Roxanne
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wells-Peris
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia.
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Dux
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attention; Object substitution masking; Visual masking; Visual perception