Does attention speed up processing? Decreases and increases of processing rates in visual prior entry

TY - JOUR

T1 - Does attention speed up processing? Decreases and increases of processing rates in visual prior entry

AU - Tünnermann, Jan

AU - Petersen, Anders

AU - Scharlau, Ingrid

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - Selective visual attention improves performance in many tasks. Among others, it leads to "prior entry"-earlier perception of an attended compared to an unattended stimulus. Whether this phenomenon is purely based on an increase of the processing rate of the attended stimulus or if a decrease in the processing rate of the unattended stimulus also contributes to the effect is, up to now, unanswered. Here we describe a novel approach to this question based on Bundesen's Theory of Visual Attention, which we use to overcome the limitations of earlier prior-entry assessment with temporal order judgments (TOJs) that only allow relative statements regarding the processing speed of attended and unattended stimuli. Prevalent models of prior entry in TOJs either indirectly predict a pure acceleration or cannot model the difference between acceleration and deceleration. In a paradigm that combines a letteridentification task with TOJs, we show that indeed acceleration of the attended and deceleration of the unattended stimuli conjointly cause prior entry.

AB - Selective visual attention improves performance in many tasks. Among others, it leads to "prior entry"-earlier perception of an attended compared to an unattended stimulus. Whether this phenomenon is purely based on an increase of the processing rate of the attended stimulus or if a decrease in the processing rate of the unattended stimulus also contributes to the effect is, up to now, unanswered. Here we describe a novel approach to this question based on Bundesen's Theory of Visual Attention, which we use to overcome the limitations of earlier prior-entry assessment with temporal order judgments (TOJs) that only allow relative statements regarding the processing speed of attended and unattended stimuli. Prevalent models of prior entry in TOJs either indirectly predict a pure acceleration or cannot model the difference between acceleration and deceleration. In a paradigm that combines a letteridentification task with TOJs, we show that indeed acceleration of the attended and deceleration of the unattended stimuli conjointly cause prior entry.

U2 - 10.1167/15.3.1

DO - 10.1167/15.3.1

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1534-7362

VL - 15

SP - 1

EP - 27

JO - Journal of Vision

JF - Journal of Vision

IS - 3

ER -