Abstract
The capture of covert spatial attention by salient visual events influences subsequent gaze behavior. A task irrelevant stimulus (cue) can reduce (Attention capture) or prolong (Inhi-bition of return) saccade reaction time to a subsequent target stimulus depending on the cue-target delay. Here we investigated the mechanisms that underlie the sensory-based account of AC/IOR by manipulating the visual processing stage where the cue and target interact. In Experiment 1, liquid crystal shutter goggles were used to test whether AC/IOR occur at a monocular versus binocular processing stage (before versus after signals from both eyes converge). In Experiment 2, we tested whether visual orientation selective mechanisms are critical for AC/IOR by using oriented “Gabor” stimuli. We found that the magnitude of AC and IOR was not different between monocular and interocular viewing conditions, or between iso- and ortho-oriented cue-target interactions. The results suggest that the visual mechanisms that contribute to AC/IOR arise at an orientation-independent binocular processing stage.
Highlights
The mechanisms that underlie the control of visuospatial attention determine where we look at any moment
Participants had longer SRTs at the 100 ms CTOA (267± 9) than the 500 ms CTOA (209 ms ± 9), F(1,9)=212, p
In Experiment 1 (Visual Occlusion Manipulation), we tested the hypothesis that Attention Capture (AC) and Inhibition of Return (IOR) rely on an early monocular stage of visual processing, versus a later binocular stage of visual processing
Summary
The mechanisms that underlie the control of visuospatial attention determine where we look at any moment. The sudden appearance of a visual stimulus can “capture” attention (Godijn & Theeuwes, 2002), which can initially facilitate orienting to that location, but later may inhibit orienting to that location. These reflexive, covert orienting behaviors have been termed Attention Capture (AC) and Inhibition of Return (IOR), respectively, and have been central to our understanding of visuospatial orienting in real world contexts (Fecteau and Munoz 2006; Klein 2000; Klein and MacInnes 1999; Jonides 1981; Posner et al 1985; Sumner et al 2002). When the CTOA is long (typically > 200 ms), responses to the target at the cued location are slower than to uncued locations (IOR) (Jonides 1981; Klein 2009; Klein 2000; Maylor, 1985; Posner & Cohen, 1984)
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