Abstract
In a recent paper, we introduced a method and equation for inferring the allocation of attention on a continuous scale. The size of the stimuli, the estimated size of the fovea, and the pattern of results implied that the subjects' responses reflected shifts in covert attention rather than shifts in eye movements. This report describes an experiment that tests this implication. We measured eye movements. The monitor briefly displayed (e.g., 130 ms) two small stimuli (≈1.0° × 1.2°), situated one atop another. When the stimuli were close together, as in the previous study, fixations that supported correct responses at one stimulus also supported correct responses at the other stimulus, as measured over the entire session. Yet, on any particular trial, correct responses were limited to just one stimulus. This pattern suggests that the constraints on responding within a trial were due to limits on cognitive processing, whereas the ability to respond correctly to either stimulus on different trials must have entailed shifts in attention (that were not accompanied by eye movements). In contrast, when the stimuli were far apart, fixations that had a high probability of supporting correct responses at one stimulus had a low probability of supporting correct responses at the other stimulus. Thus, conditions could be arranged so that correct responses depended on eye movements, whereas in the “standard” procedure, correct responses were independent of eye movements. The results dissociate covert and overt attention and support the claim that our procedure measures covert attention.
Highlights
Fechner’s Elemente der Psychophysik, published in 1860 has long stood as a landmark in the history of experimental psychology
The results demonstrate that the participants shifted attention without shifting their gaze
In the behavioral version of the procedure used in this study (“two-armed bandit” experiments), response proportions approximate the probabilities of a correct response when there is no feedback but shift toward maximizing as a function of feedback, practice and incentives
Summary
Fechner’s Elemente der Psychophysik, published in 1860 has long stood as a landmark in the history of experimental psychology. Generations of researchers have followed Fechner’s lead: first specifying a quantitative model of the mind testing it experimentally (see, e.g., signal detection theory studies). Working in this tradition, we recently introduced a procedure for quantitatively inferring the allocation of attention (Heyman et al, 2016). There is a long tradition of quantification in cognitive psychology (e.g., Sperling and Dosher, 1986; Bundesen, 1996), there is, to our knowledge, no method for inferring the allocation of attention on a continuous scale that ranges from 0 to 100% (as in choice studies). Solving the equation “solved” how much attention a subject devoted to each stimulus
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