Task switching mediates the attentional blink even without backward masking.

Full Abstract

When two targets are presented in rapid succession, perception of the second target is impaired at short intertarget lags (100-700 msec). This attentional blink (AB) is thought to occur only when the second target is backward masked. To the contrary, we show that task switching between the targets can produce an AB even without masking (Experiments 1 and 3). Further, we show that task switching produces an AB only when the second target does not belong to a class of overlearned stimuli such as letters or digits (Experiments 1 and 4). When the second target is masked, however, an AB is invariably obtained regardless of switching or overlearning. We propose that task switching involves a time-consuming process of reconfiguration of the visual system, during which the representation of the second target decays beyond recognition, resulting in an AB deficit. We suggest that overlearned stimuli are encoded in a form that, while maskable, decays relatively slowly, thus outlasting the delay due to reconfiguration and avoiding the AB deficit.

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Author information

Author/s: Kawahara, Jun-Ichiro (J); Zuvic, Samantha M (SM); Enns, James T (JT); Di Lollo, Vincent (V);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Hiroshima University, Higashi, Hiroshima, Japan. jkawa(-atsign-)hiroshima-u.ac.jp

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Perception & psychophysics (Percept Psychophys), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Apr; vol 65 (issue 3) : pp 339-51

Dates: Created 2003/06/04; Completed 2003/07/08; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12785064, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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