Temporal attention boosts perceptual effects of spatial attention and feature-based attention

Abstract

Temporal attention, that is, the process of anticipating the occurrence of a stimulus at a given time point, has been shown to improve perceptual processing of visual stimuli. In the present study, we investigated whether and how temporal attention interacts with spatial attention and feature-based attention in visual selection. To monitor the influence of the three different attention dimensions on perceptual processing, we measured event-related potentials (ERPs). Our participants performed a visual search task, in which a colored singleton was presented amongst homogenous distractors. We manipulated spatial and feature-based attention by requiring participants to respond only to target singletons in a particular color and at a to-be-attended spatial location. We manipulated temporal attention by means of an explicit temporal cue that announced either validly or invalidly the occurrence of the search display. We obtained early ERP effects of spatial attention and feature-based attention at the validly cued but not at the invalidly cued time point. Taken together, our results suggest that temporal attention boosts early effects of spatial and feature-based attention.