Comparing the time course and efficacy of spatial and feature-based attention

• Published in: Vision research (Oxford) Vol. 47; no. 1; pp. 108 - 113
• Main Authors: Liu, Taosheng, Stevens, Sean T., Carrasco, Marisa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 2007; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Attention; Biological and medical sciences; Cues; Eye and associated structures. Visual pathways and centers. Vision; Feature; Fixation, Ocular; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Motion Perception; Photic Stimulation - methods; Psychophysics; Reaction Time; Spatial; Time course; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Visual attention; Time course; Psychophysics; Spatial; Visual attention; Feature; Vision; Perception; Time analysis
• ISSN: 0042-6989; 1878-5646
• DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2006.09.017

We investigated the time course of feature-based attention and compared it to the time course of spatial attention in an experiment with identical stimuli and task. Observers detected a speed increment in a compound motion stimulus preceded by cues that indicated either the target location or direction. The cue-target stimulus-onset-asynchrony (SOA) was varied to assess the time course of the attentional effect. We found that spatial attention was deployed earlier than feature-based attention and that both types of attention improved performance to a similar extent at a longer SOA. Results indicate that attention is a flexible mechanism allowing us to efficiently select task-relevant information based on either spatial or feature dimensions, but that spatial attention exert its effects faster.