Data-limited manipulations of T1 difficulty modulate the attentional blink.

Full Abstract

When two targets are embedded in a temporal stream of distractors, second-target identification is initially impaired and then gradually improves as intertarget interval lengthens (attentional blink; AB). According to bottleneck models of the AB, difficulty of first-target processing should modulate the magnitude of the second-target deficit. To test this, we examined whether a data-limited manipulation of T1 difficulty (forward masking) would modulate AB magnitude. In two experiments, we show that data-limited manipulations of T1 difficulty do affect the AB, so long as T1 is not masked by an immediately trailing distractor. When such a trailing item is present, the relationship between T1 difficulty and the AB disappears.

Author information

Author/s: Visser, Troy A W (TA); Ohan, Jeneva L (JL);

Affiliation: Psychology Department, University of British Columbia--Okanagan, Kelowna, Canada. troy.visser(-atsign-)ubc.ca

Journal and publication information

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

Journal: Canadian journal of experimental psychology = Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale (Can J Exp Psychol), published in Canada. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Jun; vol 61 (issue 2) : pp 102-8

Dates: Created 2007/08/01; Completed 2007/10/04;

PMID: 17665751, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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