Reducing the effects of adjacent distractors by narrowing attention.

Three experiments explored the gradual narrowing of visual attention to a letter target when other letters were positioned close by. The method by which attention was narrowed involved presenting a digit target immediately prior to the latter target and in the same location for progressively shorter durations and requiring the subject to identify both the digit target and the letter target before responding. The response time data from the first 2 experiments indicated that shorter durations of the digit reduced the amount of information processed from noise letters positioned on either side of the letter target. In the third experiment, in which separation of letters was increased slightly, the response times indicated that the information from flanking noise letters may have been virtually eliminated.

[1]  S. Yantis.  On analog movements of visual attention , 1988, Perception & psychophysics.

[2]  J Miller,et al.  Priming is not necessary for selective-attention failures: Semantic effects of unattended, unprimed letters , 1987, Perception & psychophysics.

[3]  C. Eriksen,et al.  Movement of attentional focus across the visual field: A critical look at the evidence , 1987, Perception & psychophysics.

[4]  C. Eriksen,et al.  Visual attention within and around the field of focal attention: A zoom lens model , 1986, Perception & psychophysics.

[5]  D. LaBerge.  Spatial extent of attention to letters and words. , 1983, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[6]  J. Jonides.  Further toward a model of the Mind’s eye’s movement , 1983 .

[7]  D. Broadbent.  Task combination and selective intake of information. , 1982, Acta psychologica.

[8]  J. Requin.  Attention and Performance VII , 1980 .

[9]  C W Eriksen,et al.  Information processing in visual search: A continuous flow conception and experimental results , 1979, Perception & psychophysics.

[10]  Marilyn L. Shaw,et al.  A capacity allocation model for reaction time. , 1978 .

[11]  J. Yellott.  Correction for fast guessing and the speed-accuracy tradeoff in choice reaction time , 1971 .

[12]  D. LaBerge,et al.  Theory of attentional operations in shape identification. , 1989 .

[13]  G. Shulman,et al.  Spatial determinants of the distribution of attention , 1985, Perception & psychophysics.

[14]  C. Eriksen,et al.  Effects of noise letters upon the identification of a target letter in a nonsearch task , 1974 .

[15]  J. Yellott.  Correction for guessing in choice reaction time , 1967 .