Attentional changes during implicit learning: signal validity protects a target stimulus from the attentional blink.

Full Abstract

Participants in 2 experiments performed 2 simultaneous tasks: one, a dual-target detection task within a rapid sequence of target and distractor letters; the other, a cued reaction time task requiring participants to make a cued left-right response immediately after each letter sequence. Under these rapid visual presentation conditions, it is usually difficult to identify the 2nd target when it is presented in temporal proximity of the 1st target-a phenomenon known as the attentional blink. However, here participants showed an advantage for detecting a target presented during the attentional blink if that target predicted which response cue would appear at the end of the trial. Participants also showed faster reaction times on trials with a predictive target. Both of these effects were independent of conscious knowledge of the target-response contingencies assessed by postexperiment questionnaires. The results suggest that implicit learning of the association between a predictive target and its outcome can automatically facilitate target recognition during the attentional blink and therefore shed new light on the relationship between associative learning and attentional mechanisms. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved

Author information

Author/s: Livesey, Evan J (EJ); Harris, Irina M (IM); Harris, Justin A (JA);

Affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. evanl(-atsign-)psych.usyd.edu.au

Journal and publication information

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

Journal: Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition (J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Mar; vol 35 (issue 2) : pp 408-22

Dates: Created 2009/03/10; Completed 2009/05/11;

PMID: 19271855, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 5/11/2009, IMS Date: 11 May 2009 00:00:00)

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

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.

See 100+ related articles.

See a large map of 100+ related articles.