Measuring and Modelling Attentional Dwell Time

TY - JOUR

T1 - Measuring and Modelling Attentional Dwell Time

AU - Petersen, Anders

AU - Kyllingsbæk, Søren

AU - Bundesen, Claus

PY - 2012/12

Y1 - 2012/12

N2 - Attentional dwell time (AD) defines our inability to perceive spatially separate events when they occur in rapid succession. In the standard AD paradigm, subjects should identify two target stimuli presented briefly at different peripheral locations with a varied stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). The AD effect is seen as a long-lasting impediment in reporting the second target, culminating at SOAs of 200-500 ms. Here, we present the first quantitative computational model of the effect-a theory of temporal visual attention. The model is based on the neural theory of visual attention (Bundesen, Habekost, & Kyllingsbæk, Psychological Review, 112, 291-328 2005) and introduces the novel assumption that a stimulus retained in visual short-term memory takes up visual processing-resources used to encode stimuli into memory. Resources are thus locked and cannot process subsequent stimuli until the stimulus in memory has been recoded, which explains the long-lasting AD effect. The model is used to explain results from two experiments providing detailed individual data from both a standard AD paradigm and an extension with varied exposure duration of the target stimuli. Finally, we discuss new predictions by the model.

AB - Attentional dwell time (AD) defines our inability to perceive spatially separate events when they occur in rapid succession. In the standard AD paradigm, subjects should identify two target stimuli presented briefly at different peripheral locations with a varied stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). The AD effect is seen as a long-lasting impediment in reporting the second target, culminating at SOAs of 200-500 ms. Here, we present the first quantitative computational model of the effect-a theory of temporal visual attention. The model is based on the neural theory of visual attention (Bundesen, Habekost, & Kyllingsbæk, Psychological Review, 112, 291-328 2005) and introduces the novel assumption that a stimulus retained in visual short-term memory takes up visual processing-resources used to encode stimuli into memory. Resources are thus locked and cannot process subsequent stimuli until the stimulus in memory has been recoded, which explains the long-lasting AD effect. The model is used to explain results from two experiments providing detailed individual data from both a standard AD paradigm and an extension with varied exposure duration of the target stimuli. Finally, we discuss new predictions by the model.

U2 - 10.3758/s13423-012-0286-y

DO - 10.3758/s13423-012-0286-y

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 22847596

SN - 1069-9384

VL - 19

SP - 1029

EP - 1046

JO - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

JF - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

IS - 6

ER -