Journal article
Distinguishing blocking from attenuation in visual selective attention
Psychological science, Vol.22(6), pp.771-780
06/2011
DOI: 10.1177/0956797611407927
PMCID: PMC7106067
PMID: 21551339
Abstract
Sensory information must be processed selectively in order to represent the world and guide behavior. How does such selection occur? Here we consider two alternative classes of selection mechanisms: In blocking, unattended stimuli are blocked entirely from access to downstream processes, and in attenuation, unattended stimuli are reduced in strength but if strong enough can still access downstream processes. Existing evidence as to whether blocking or attenuation is a more accurate model of human performance is mixed. Capitalizing on a general distinction between blocking and attenuation-blocking cannot be overcome by strong stimuli, whereas attenuation can-we measured how attention interacted with the strength of stimuli in two spatial selection paradigms, spatial filtering and spatial monitoring. The evidence was consistent with blocking for the filtering paradigm and with attenuation for the monitoring paradigm. This approach provides a general measure of the fate of unattended stimuli.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Distinguishing blocking from attenuation in visual selective attention
- Creators
- Serap Yigit-Elliott - University of Washington, Seattle 98195, USA. jpalmer@uw.eduJohn PalmerCathleen M Moore
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Psychological science, Vol.22(6), pp.771-780
- DOI
- 10.1177/0956797611407927
- PMID
- 21551339
- PMCID
- PMC7106067
- NLM abbreviation
- Psychol Sci
- ISSN
- 0956-7976
- eISSN
- 1467-9280
- Publisher
- United States
- Grant note
- R01 MH067793 / NIMH NIH HHS MH067793 / NIMH NIH HHS
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 06/2011
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences; Injury Prevention Research Center
- Record Identifier
- 9984002349702771
Metrics
30 Record Views