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.
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TL;DR: Electrophysiological evidence that words presented during the attentional blink period are analysed to the point of meaning extraction, even though these extracted meanings cannot be reported 1–2 s later provides a demonstration of the modularity of human brain function.
Abstract: After the detection of a target item in a rapid stream of visual stimuli, there is a period of 400-600 ms during which subsequent targets are missed. This impairment has been labelled the 'attentional blink'. It has been suggested that, unlike an eye blink, the additional blink does not reflect a suppression of perceptual processing, but instead reflects a loss of information at a postperceptual stage, such as visual short-term memory. Here we provide electrophysiological evidence that words presented during the attentional blink period are analysed to the point of meaning extraction, even though these extracted meanings cannot be reported 1-2s later. This shows that the attentional blink does indeed reflect a loss of information at a postperceptual stage of processing, and provides a demonstration of the modularity of human brain function.
512 citations
TL;DR: The present article reports a series of experiments in which the temporary attentional deficits that ensue when humans are required to select a target from among a temporal stream of stimuli presented at a rapid rate.
Abstract: To investigate the temporal allocation of attention, a series of 7 experiments using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) was designed to examine the relationship of the attentional demands of various target tasks to the production of the subsequent visual attentional deficit, or "attentional blink" (AB), recently reported by J. E. Raymond, K. L. Shapiro, and K. M. Amell (1992). The principal finding is that AB occurs only when a target is an object and does not occur when the target is defined by a temporal interval. Target detection difficulty as estimated by d' analysis reveals no relationship between the attentional demands of the target and the production of the AB. A late-selection account of this phenomenon is offered in place of the early-selection account advanced in Raymond et al.'s previous report. Many studies of visual attention have addressed issues concerning the allocation of attention to spatially distributed visual information that is presented for brief intervals. The experiments reported in this article, however, are concerned with how attention is allocated to visual information that is distributed over time but presented in a restricted area of the visual field. The present article reports a series of experiments in which we investigated the temporary attentional deficits that ensue when humans are required to select a target from among a temporal stream of stimuli presented at a rapid rate. The task used in all experiments is that of rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP). In the generic task, stimuli are presented briefly in the same location at a rate of between 6-20 items/s. The subject's task is to identify one or more target(s) that is(are) differentiated in some way from the background, or nontarget, stimulus stream. Stimuli that have been investigated with this method include letters, digits, words, and pictures (e.g., D. E. Broadbent & M. H. P. Broadbent, 1987; Intraub, 1985; Kanwisher, 1987; Lawrence, 1971; Reeves & Sperling, 1986; Weichselgartner & Sperling, 1987). Thus the RSVP procedure could be construed as the temporal analogy to spatial search in that a subject must detect a target from among a set of nontargets or distractors.
449 citations
TL;DR: Three experiments in the present study reveal a failure of resource-limitation accounts to explain why the AB is absent when the targets consist of a stream of three items belonging to the same category (e.g., letters or digits).
Abstract: Identification of the second of two targets is impaired if it is presented less than about 500 ms after the first. Theoretical accounts of this second-target deficit, known as attentional blink (AB), have relied on some form of limited attentional resource that is allocated to the leading target at the expense of the trailing target. Three experiments in the present study reveal a failure of resource-limitation accounts to explain why the AB is absent when the targets consist of a stream of three items belonging to the same category (e.g., letters or digits). The AB is reinstated, however, if an item from a different category is inserted in the target string. This result, and all major results in the AB literature, is explained by the hypothesis that the AB arises from a temporary loss of control over the prevailing attentional set. This lapse in control renders the observer vulnerable to an exogenously-triggered switch in attentional set.
444 citations
TL;DR: Evidence that 8–12 Hz oscillations in the brain have a general inhibitory role in cognitive processing, with an emphasis on their role in visual processing is reviewed, and evidence that this pulsed inhibitory account of alpha can be entrained to rhythmic stimuli in the environment, such that preferential processing occurs for stimuli at predictable moments.
Abstract: Alpha oscillations are ubiquitous in the brain, but their role in cortical processing remains a matter of debate. Recently, evidence has begun to accumulate in support of a role for alpha oscillations in attention selection and control. Here we first review evidence that 8-12 Hz oscillations in the brain have a general inhibitory role in cognitive processing, with an emphasis on their role in visual processing. Then, we summarize the evidence in support of our recent proposal that alpha represents a pulsed-inhibition of ongoing neural activity. The phase of the ongoing electroencephalography can influence evoked activity and subsequent processing, and we propose that alpha exerts its inhibitory role through alternating microstates of inhibition and excitation. Finally, we discuss evidence that this pulsed-inhibition can be entrained to rhythmic stimuli in the environment, such that preferential processing occurs for stimuli at predictable moments. The entrainment of preferential phase may provide a mechanism for temporal attention in the brain. This pulsed inhibitory account of alpha has important implications for many common cognitive phenomena, such as the attentional blink, and seems to indicate that our visual experience may at least some times be coming through in waves.
432 citations
TL;DR: The early anterior N100 and posterior P1 amplitudes elicited by fearful faces were larger than those eliciting by happy or neutral faces, a finding which is consistent with the presence of a 'negativity bias.
417 citations