Spatial Factors in Visual Attention: Some Compensatory Effects of Location and Time of Arrival of Nontargets

It is well established that the identity of nontarget events may affect reaction to a target event, but that spatial separation between the two will reduce such an influence. Two experiments are reported in which an attempt was made to distinguish between two accounts of this effect. On one, some of the information about events spatially distant from the target is shut out from analysis altogether. On the other, such events are fully analysed, but either the analysis proceeds more slowly or else it starts only after a delay. In the experiments the time of arrival of, and the distance between, the target and nontarget events were systematically varied. The conventional effects of the distance of nontargets from target were greatly reduced when the target and nontarget events were asynchronous. If the nontargets arrived first, they had an effect on reaction to the target whether they were near to or far from it. If they arrived second, their identity had no effect at either separation. These results appear to rule out any simple view of attention according to which information outside the target region is denied analysis. Rather, distant nontarget events are analysed, but produce their effects at a later time than less peripheral events.