Top-down control over biased competition during covert spatial orienting.

Full Abstract

Larger benefits of spatial attention are observed when distractor interference is prevalent, supporting the view that spatial selection facilitates visual processing by suppressing distractor interference. The present work shows that cuing effects with identical visual displays can grow substantially as the probability of distractor interference increases. The probability of interference had no impact on spatial cuing effects in the absence of distractors, suggesting that the enlarged cuing effects were not caused by changes in signal enhancement or in the spatial distribution of attention. These findings suggest that attentional control settings determine more than where spatial attention is directed; top-down settings also influence how attention affects visual processing, with increased levels of distractor exclusion when distractor interference is likely.

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Author information

Author/s: Awh, Edward (E); Matsukura, Michi (M); Serences, John T (JT);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene 97403-1227, USA. awh(-atsign-)darkwing.uoregon.edu

Grants: 1 R01 MH64119 (Agency:United States NIMH)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Clinical Trial; Controlled Clinical Trial; Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance (J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Feb; vol 29 (issue 1) : pp 52-63

Dates: Created 2003/04/02; Completed 2003/06/11; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 12669747, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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

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