TY - JOUR

T1 - Prior Entry and Temporal Attention

T2 - Cueing Affects Order Errors in RSVP

AU - Hilkenmeier, Frederic

AU - Olivers, Christian N. L.

AU - Scharlau, Ingrid Rose

PY - 2012/2

Y1 - 2012/2

N2 - The law of prior entry states that attended objects come to consciousness more quickly than unattended ones. This has been well established in spatial cueing paradigms, where two task-relevant stimuli are presented near-simultaneously at two different locations. Here, we suggest that prior entry also plays a pivotal role in temporal attention paradigms, where stimuli appear at the same location but at distinct moments in time, in rapid serial presentation (RSVP). Specifically, we hypothesize that prior entry can explain temporal order reversals in reporting two targets from RSVP. In support of this, three experiments show that cueing attention toward either of the targets has a strong influence on order errors. We conclude that prior entry provides a viable explanation of the way in which relevant information is prioritized in RSVP.

AB - The law of prior entry states that attended objects come to consciousness more quickly than unattended ones. This has been well established in spatial cueing paradigms, where two task-relevant stimuli are presented near-simultaneously at two different locations. Here, we suggest that prior entry also plays a pivotal role in temporal attention paradigms, where stimuli appear at the same location but at distinct moments in time, in rapid serial presentation (RSVP). Specifically, we hypothesize that prior entry can explain temporal order reversals in reporting two targets from RSVP. In support of this, three experiments show that cueing attention toward either of the targets has a strong influence on order errors. We conclude that prior entry provides a viable explanation of the way in which relevant information is prioritized in RSVP.

KW - Psychology

KW - visual attention

KW - attentional enhancement

KW - temporal cueing

KW - prior entry

KW - attentional blink

KW - lag1-sparing

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84864344231&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1037/a0025978

DO - 10.1037/a0025978

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 22082215

VL - 38

SP - 180

EP - 190

JO - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

JF - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

SN - 0096-1523

IS - 1

ER -