The role of covert orienting of attention in response channel activation was examined using the flanker interference and precueing paradigms. Four experiments assessed the influence of distractors on the discrimination of a target colour patch under cueing conditions (three with non-informative, exogenous cues and one with informative, endogenous cues) that modulated attention at the flanker or target locations. Across all of the experiments, the amount of interference generated by the distractors was not modulated by the facilitation and inhibition of return induced by spatial attention precues. These results are consistent with previous reports of patients with neglect, which demonstrated that flanker interference proceeds at unattended locations (Audet, Bub, & Lecours, 1991; Cohen, Ivry, Rafal, & Kohn, 1995), and they suggest that response channel activation can occur independently from spatial attention.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AudetT.BubD.LecoursA. R. (1991). Visual neglect and left-sided context effects.Brain and Cognition16, 11–28.
2.
ChealM.ChastainG.LyonD. R. (1998). Inhibition of return in visual identification tasks.Visual Cognition5, 365–388.
3.
CohenA.IvryR.RafalR.KohnC. (1995). Response code activation by stimuli in the neglected visual field.Neuropsychology9, 165–173.
4.
ColesM. G.GrattonG.BashoreT. R.EriksenC. W.DonchinE. (1985). A psychophysiological investigation of the continuous flow model of human information processing.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance11, 529–553.
5.
DiedrichsenJ.IvryR. B.CohenA.DanzigerS. (2000). Asymmetries in a unilateral flanker task depend on the direction of the response: The role of attentional shift and perceptual grouping.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance26, 113–126.
6.
EglyR.RafalR. D.HenikA.Exogenous and endogenous orienting of visual attention in detection and discrimination tasksPoster presented at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society.St. Louis, MO, USANovember1992.
7.
EglyR.RafalR. D.HenikA.BergerA.Reflexive and voluntary covert orienting in detection and discrimination tasks.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. in press.
8.
EriksenC. W.ColesM. G.MorrisL. R.O'HaraW. P. (1985). An electromyographic examination of response competition.Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society23, 165–168.
9.
EriksenB. A.EriksenC. W. (1974). Effects of noise letters upon the identification of a target letter in a nonsearch task.Perception & Psychophysics16, 143–149.
10.
EriksenC. W.SchultzD. W. (1979). Information processing in visual search: A continuous flow conception and experimental results.Perception & Psychophysics25, 249–263.
11.
EriksenC. W.St. JamesJ. D. (1986). Visual attention within and around the field of focal attention: A zoom lens model.Perception & Psychophysics40, 225–240.
12.
FriedrichF. J.EglyR.RafalR. D.BeckD. (1998). Spatial attention deficits in humans: A comparison of superior parietal and temporal-parietal junction lesions.Neuropsychology12, 193–207.
13.
FuentesL. J.VivasA. B.HumphreysG. W. (1999). Inhibitory tagging of stimulus properties in inhibition of return: Effects on semantic priming and flanker interference.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Experimental Psychology52, A149–164.
14.
GrattonG.ColesM. G.SirevaagE. J.EriksenC. W.DonchinE. (1988). Pre-and poststimulus activation of response channels: A psychophysiological analysis.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance14, 331–344.
15.
IvanoffJ.KleinR. M. (2001). The presence of a non-responding effector increases inhibition of return.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review8, 307–314.
16.
KingstoneA.PrattJ. (1999). Inhibition of return is composed of attentional and oculomotor processes.Perception & Psychophysics61, 1046–1054.
17.
LavieN. (1995). Perceptual load as a necessary condition for selective attention.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance21, 451–468.
18.
LavieN.TsalY. (1994). Perceptual load as a major determinant of the locus of selection in visual attention.Perception & Psychophysics56, 183–197.
19.
LupianezJ.MilanE. G.TornayF. J.MadridE.TudelaP. (1997). Does IOR occur in discrimination tasks? Yes, it does, but later.Perception & Psychophysics59, 1241–1254.
20.
MaruffP.YucelM.DanckertJ.StuartG.CurrieJ. (1999). Facilitation and inhibition arising from the exogenous orienting of covert attention depends on the temporal properties of spatial cues and targets.Neuropsychologia37, 731–744.
21.
MaylorE. A. (1985). Facilitatory and inhibitory components of orienting in visual space.Attention and performance XI.PosnerM. I.MarinO. S. M.Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc189–204.
22.
MaylorE. A.HockeyR. (1985). Inhibitory component of externally controlled covert orienting in visual space.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance11, 777–787.
23.
PaquetL.LortieC. (1990). Evidence for early selection: Pre-cuing target location reduces interference from same category distractors.Perception & Psychophysics48, 382–388.
24.
PosnerM. I.CohenY. (1984). Components of visual orienting.Attention and performance X.BoumaH.BouwhuisD.Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc531–556.
25.
PrattJ. (1995). Inhibtion of return in a discrimination task.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review2, 117–120.
26.
PrattJ.KingstoneA.KhoeW. (1997). Inhibition of return in location-and identity-based choice decision tasks.Perception & Psychophysics59, 964–971.
27.
RafalR. D.GershbergF.EglyR.IvryR.KingstoneA.RoT. (1996). Response channel activation and the lateral prefrontal cortex.Neuropsychologia34, 1197–1202.
28.
RoT.CohenA.IvryR.RafalR. (1998). Response channel activation and the temporo-parietal junction.Special issue on neglect: Brain & Cognition37, 461–476.
29.
TanakaY.ShimojoS. (1996). Location vs. feature: Reaction time reveals dissociation between two visual functions.Vision Research36, 2125–2140.
30.
TassinariG.AgliotiS.ChelazziL.PeruA.BerlucchiG. (1994). Do peripheral non-informative cues induce early facilitation of target detection.Vision Research34, 179–189.
31.
TaylorT. L. (1999). Generating and measuring inhibition of return. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B.The Sciences & Engineering60, 13–26.
32.
TaylorT. L.KleinR. M. (1998). On the causes and effects of inhibition of return.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review5, 625–643.
33.
TerryK. M.ValdesL. A.NeillW. T. (1994). Does “inhibition of return” occur in discrimination tasks?.Perception & Psychophysics55, 279–286.
34.
TheeuwesJ. (1991). Exogenous and endogenous control of attention: The effect of visual onsets and offsets.Perception & Psychophysics49, 83–90.
35.
YantisS.JohnstonJ. C. (1990). On the locus of visual selection: Evidence from focused attention tasks.journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance16, 135–149.
36.
YantisS.JonidesJ. (1990). Abrupt visual onsets and selective attention: Voluntary versus automatic allocation.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance16, 121–134.
