Guiding attention to specific locations by combining symbolic information about direction and distance: Are human observers direction experts?

Abstract

Spatial symbols can guide attention to a specific location only when they convey information about both direction and distance. However, the spatial symbols that have been used in previous cuing studies only convey information about direction, but not distance. Consequently, previous studies have only demonstrated that spatial symbols can exert partial control over the guidance of attention to specific locations. The present study investigated whether spatial symbols can also exert a more complete form of control over the guidance of attention to specific locations by presenting symbolic cues that conveyed information about both direction and distance. The effects of each spatial dimension were isolated by varying the spatial validity of each dimension separately. Consistent with the notion of more complete control, the results of 4 experiments showed that observers routinely combined symbolic information about direction and distance to guide their attention to specific locations. Perhaps more importantly, the results also suggested that observers demonstrated greater expertise orienting in response to direction symbols, though this expertise was only observed when these symbols were both familiar and commonly used to orient attention in the outside world. These results extend current theories, and set a new standard for studying symbolic control.