Abstract
In a crowded dynamic world, temporal expectations guide our attention in time. Prior investigations have consistently demonstrated that temporal expectations speed motor behavior. We explore effects of temporal expectation on <xh:i>perceptual</xh:i> speed in three nonspeeded, cued recognition paradigms. Different hazard rate functions for the cue-stimulus foreperiod were used to manipulate temporal expectations. By computational modeling we estimated two distinct components of visual attention: the temporal threshold of conscious perception (to ms) and the speed of subsequent encoding into visual short-term memory (v items/s). Notably, these components were measured independently of any motor involvement. The threshold to was unaffected by temporal expectation, but perceptual processing speed v increased with increasing expectation. By employing constant hazard rates to keep expectation constant over time, we further confirmed that the increase in perceptual speed was independent of the cue-stimulus duration. Thus, our results strongly suggest temporal expectations optimize perceptual performance by speeding information processing.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1183-1191 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| ISSN | 0096-1523 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 2012 |