Topic
Attentional blink
About: Attentional blink is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1346 publications have been published within this topic receiving 53064 citations. The topic is also known as: Attentional blinks.
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
More filters
01 Sep 2006
TL;DR: In this paper, a computational exploration of how meaning modulates temporal attention is presented, and the authors also explore the applicability of formal methods to the abstract modelling of cognition, which enables modelling of an important class of cognitive architectures in which multiple subsystems interact and control is distributed.
Abstract: This paper presents a computational exploration of how meaning modulates temporal attention. This has been explored within the context of Barnard et al's key-distractor Attentional Blink (AB) and proposes a mechanism by which attention is captured by salient meaning. We also explore the applicability of formal methods to the abstract modelling of cognition. Such formal methods enable modelling of an important class of cognitive architectures in which multiple subsystems interact and control is distributed. Most significantly, we have used the formal methods framework to explore the problem of how to relate different levels of abstraction / description in cognitive modelling. Our modelling of Barnard's ICS (Interacting Cognitive Subsystems) architecture illustrates this approach. A major result of our work is the simulation of the key-distractor AB. This simulation is formulated in terms of the interaction between ICS' two central subsystems, which extract implicational and propositional meaning, respectively. Items related to a target category may be interpreted as implicationally salient, even though a later propositional check reveals they are not targets. Such items capture attention, creating a window of time in which the system is vulnerable to missing actual targets. We also explore how changes in semantic salience modulate the key-distractor AB, thereby clarifying the temporal properties of attentional capture by semantic salience.
3 citations
TL;DR: The results indicate that: (1) the outcomes of processing prime words are a key factor in repetition priming effects, with blinked and reported T2s behaving like masked and unmasked primes, respectively, and (2) there may be different sources of repetition effects.
3 citations
TL;DR: This work examined whether resource allocation to T1, and thus overinvestment that results in an AB effect, might be limited by perceptual mechanisms that evaluate the need for encoding resources.
Abstract: The overinvestment account of the attentional blink (AB) posits that the AB results from the allocation of more resources than necessary to encode a first target (T1), which in turn lowers the resources available to encode a second target (T2) shortly thereafter. Across two experiments, we examined whether resource allocation to T1, and thus overinvestment that results in an AB effect, might be limited by perceptual mechanisms that evaluate the need for encoding resources. The key result observed in both experiments was that a relatively easy to encode T1 can nonetheless result in an AB when it is perceptually similar to a more difficult to encode T1. The importance of experimental context as an influence on the allocation, or overinvestment, of attentional resources to T1 is highlighted by these findings.
3 citations
TL;DR: Data indicate that the magnitude and neural signature of the attentional blink deficit is malleable, and can be influenced by non-target, task-relevant stimuli.
3 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated whether a distractor sharing a target defining feature can be used to initiate working memory consolidation before actual presentation of T2, and the results supported the view that detection of a distractors sharing a targetspecific feature initiates WMC, thereby leading to an attenuation of the attentional blink.
Abstract: The attentional blink (AB) refers to the phenomenon that observers often fail to report the second of two visual targets (i.e., T1 and T2) when these targets are presented within 500 ms in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) sequence of distractors. This phenomenon has been proposed to reflect capacity limitations in working memory consolidation (WMC), such that T2 can not engage WMC while T1 is being consolidated. However, based on the finding that errors in reporting T2 typically concern intrusions of the item directly following T2 (Chun, 1997), we propose an alternative account. Specifically, consolidation of T2 may fail because T1 consolidation delays the intitiation of WMC for T2 to such an extent that T2 has already been overwritten by the following item in the RSVP sequence, thereby leading to intrusions of the item following T2. This account predicts attenuation of the AB when WMC is initiated 100 ms before T2 is presented. In the present study, we investigated whether a distractor sharing a target defining feature can be used to initiate WMC before actual presentation of T2. Observers were to report two red digits presented in an RSVP sequence of black letters. On one half of the trials, T2 was preceded by a red letter (i.e. cue). The results showed that the AB was significantly attenuated on cued trials. Moreover, the increase in second target identification did not hamper first target identification. Consistent with our account, these findings support the view that detection of a distractor sharing a target defining feature initiates WMC, thereby leading to an attenuation of the AB for T2s that are presented in direct succession to this distractor.
3 citations