Temporal Selection Is Suppressed, Delayed, and Diffused during the Attentional Blink

• Published in: Psychological science Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 55 - 61
• Main Authors: Vul, Edward, Nieuwenstein, Mark, Kanwisher, Nancy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA Blackwell Publishing 01.01.2008; SAGE Publications; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Attentional Blink; Brain research; Center of mass; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive psychology; Cues; Delayed; Efficacy; Empirical research; Experimental psychology; Experimentation; Female; Humans; Inhibition, Psychological; Latency; Linear models; Male; Observational research; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Probability; Psychophysics; Reaction Time; Sensory perception; Serial Learning; Spatial perception; Spatio-temporal models; Stimulus; Theory; Time; Time course; Time Perception; Visual perception
• ISSN: 0956-7976; 1467-9280
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02046.x

How does temporal selection work, and along what dimensions does it vary from one instance to the next? We explored these questions using a phenomenon in which temporal selection goes awry. In the attentional blink, subjects fail to report the second of a pair of targets (T1 and T2) when they are presented at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of roughly 200 to 500 ms. We directly tested the properties of temporal selection during the blink by analyzing distractor intrusions at a fast rate of item presentation. Our analysis shows that attentional selection is (a) suppressed, (b) delayed, and (c) diffused in time during the attentional blink. These effects are dissociated by their time course: The measure of each effect returns to the baseline value at a different SOA. Our results constrain theories of the attentional blink and indicate that temporal selection varies along at least three dissociable dimensions: efficacy, latency, and precision.