Temporary suppression of visual processing in an RSVP task: an attentional blink?

Through rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), we asked Ss to identify a partially specified letter (target) and then to detect the presence or absence of a fully specified letter (probe). Whereas targets are accurately identified, probes are poorly detected when they are presented during a 270-ms...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance Vol. 18; no. 3; p. 849
Main Authors Raymond, J E, Shapiro, K L, Arnell, K M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.08.1992
Subjects
Adult
Attention
Blinking
Discrimination Learning
Female
Fixation, Ocular
Humans
Male
Orientation
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Psychophysics
Reaction Time
Saccades
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Summary:Through rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), we asked Ss to identify a partially specified letter (target) and then to detect the presence or absence of a fully specified letter (probe). Whereas targets are accurately identified, probes are poorly detected when they are presented during a 270-ms interval beginning 180 ms after the target. Probes presented immediately after the target or later in the RSVP stream are accurately detected. This temporary reduction in probe detection was not found in conditions in which a brief blank interval followed the target or Ss were not required to identify the target. The data suggest that the presentation of stimuli after the target but before target-identification processes are complete produces interference at a letter-recognition stage. This interference may cause the temporary suppression of visual attention mechanisms observed in the present study.
ISSN:0096-1523
DOI:10.1037/0096-1523.18.3.849