A moving overlay shrinks the attentional blink.

This report describes a study examining the effects of overlaying a veil of spots on the letters in a central rapid serial visual presentation stream. Observers identified two target letters (T1 and T2, respectively) embedded in a stream of distractor letters printed in a different color. In Experiment 1, the attentional blink (AB) diminished when a different overlay veiled each letter, such that the spots appeared to move as the letters changed.

Attentional capture by dynamic cues.

Attention orients to an object that abruptly onsets, because the object's appearance alters the visual scene. In this report, the question was whether there would, similarly, be attentional prioritization of an existing object that changes its dynamic status. Attention may be deployed immediately to the object because its new dynamic status, potentially, also could alter the visual environment.

Parallel programming of saccades during natural scene viewing: evidence from eye movement positions.

Previous studies have shown that saccade plans during natural scene viewing can be programmed in parallel. This evidence comes mainly from temporal indicators, i.e.

Tuning characteristics of the top-down attentional setting.

Previous studies of top-down attentional guidance have focused generally on the attentional prioritization of a single target feature. The present study focused on how the attentional system would be configured when the target possesses several unique features. These features were perfectly correlated, which meant that monitoring just one of them would be an adequate strategy.

A new object captures attention--but only when you know which objects are old.

According to the new object hypothesis (see, e.g., Yantis & Hillstrom, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 20, 95-107, 1994), an object appearing as a sudden onset captures attention because its appearance demands an immediate updating of visual short-term memory.

A new object captures attention--but only when you know it's new.

Two hypotheses have been advanced to explain why an object appearing suddenly in an empty location captures attention. According to the first hypothesis, the visual transients that accompany an abrupt onset automatically trigger attentional orienting toward the object. The second hypothesis claims that the visual system regards the onset as an advent of a new object, and the latter's novelty causes attention to be drawn toward it.

Object substitution masking: when does mask preview work?

When a target is enclosed by a 4-dot mask that persists after the target disappears, target identification is worse than it is when the mask terminates with the target. This masking effect is attributed to object substitution masking (OSM). Previewing the mask, however, attenuates OSM.

Capturing focused attention.

When attention is diffuse, as in a visual search task, an abrupt onset almost invariably succeeds in capturing attention. But if attention had been cued in advance to a different location, the same onset may then fail to capture attention (Theeuwes, 1991; Yantis and Jonides, 1990). In previous demonstrations, the onset appeared frequently.

The effect of target contrast on the attentional blink.

In this set of five rapid serial visual presentation experiments, observers identified one or two target letters that were embedded in a stream of distractors. Target contrasts were varied, and their effects on the attentional blink (AB) were examined. Target identification improved when its contrast was increased.

Capturing attention when attention blinks.

Four experiments addressed the question of whether attention may be captured when the visual system is in the midst of an attentional blink (AB). Participants identified 2 target letters embedded among distractor letters in a rapid serial visual presentation sequence. In some trials, a square frame was inserted between the targets; as the only geometric object in the sequence, it constituted a singleton.

Grouping with and without attention.

The effects of perceptual grouping on a line discrimination task were investigated using Moore and Egeth's (1997) paradigm. Observers judged which of two lines, presented one above the other over a matrix of spots, was longer. On some trials, larger spots at both ends of the lines formed arrowheads, thereby making possible the Müller-Lyer illusion.