TY - JOUR

T1 - Direct parameter specification of an attention shift: Evidence from perceptual latency priming

AU - Scharlau, Ingrid

AU - Ansorge, Ulrich

N1 - The research reported in this paper was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), grants NE 366/5-2 and NE 366/6-1 to Odmar Neumann. Thanks to Elena Carbone, Manfred Heumann, Matthias Kaper, Werner Klotz, Odmar Neumann and Dirk Vorberg, and to Adam Reeves and two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. A preliminary version of this manuscript containing parts of the experimental data was presented at the 44th Conference of Experimental Psychologists, 25–27 March 2002, Chemnitz, Germany and at the 43rd Conference of the German Society for Psychology (DGPs), 22–26 September, Berlin, Germany.

PY - 2003/6/1

Y1 - 2003/6/1

N2 - In the direct parameter specification (DPS) mode of sensorimotor control, response parameters can be specified by stimuli that are not consciously perceived [Psychological Research/Psychologische Forschung 52 (1990) 207]. DPS is contingent on the current intentions. The invisible stimuli can be processed for the purposes of sensorimotor control only if they match the actual intentions, for example, share task-relevant features. The present experiments explore whether attentional capture by masked abrupt-onset stimuli is mediated via DPS. Participants judged which of two visual targets appeared first. Masked primes preceded one of the targets. The primes were either similar to the targets or not, in shape, or in color. Target-like (task-relevant), but not distractor-like (task-irrelevant), primes facilitated perceptual latencies of targets trailing at their positions. Thus, the latency effects resulted from DPS of an attention shift, rather than from bottom-up capture or from top-down search for dynamic features.

AB - In the direct parameter specification (DPS) mode of sensorimotor control, response parameters can be specified by stimuli that are not consciously perceived [Psychological Research/Psychologische Forschung 52 (1990) 207]. DPS is contingent on the current intentions. The invisible stimuli can be processed for the purposes of sensorimotor control only if they match the actual intentions, for example, share task-relevant features. The present experiments explore whether attentional capture by masked abrupt-onset stimuli is mediated via DPS. Participants judged which of two visual targets appeared first. Masked primes preceded one of the targets. The primes were either similar to the targets or not, in shape, or in color. Target-like (task-relevant), but not distractor-like (task-irrelevant), primes facilitated perceptual latencies of targets trailing at their positions. Thus, the latency effects resulted from DPS of an attention shift, rather than from bottom-up capture or from top-down search for dynamic features.

KW - Psychology

KW - Attention

KW - Latency

KW - Masking

KW - Priming

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0038066379&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/S0042-6989(03)00141-X

DO - 10.1016/S0042-6989(03)00141-X

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 43

SP - 1351

EP - 1363

JO - Vision Research

JF - Vision Research

SN - 0042-6989

IS - 12

ER -