Does Location Cueing Increase the Efficiency of the Early Stages of Perceptual Processing?

Abstract

Previous research has shown that precueing a stimulus's location in an otherwise empty field leads to more efficient detection of that stimulus. The experiments reported here sought to determine whether or not such cueing affects the early stages(s) of perception. If cueing affects early perceptual processing, then the effect of cueing should be larger the more difficult the perceptual task; otherwise it should not. Experiment 1 failed to find any facilitation due to cueing, but did find significant inhibition from invalid cues. The size of the inhibition did not differ significantly as a function of perceptual difficulty. Experiment 2 employed a less attention-demanding type of cueing and found significant facilitation as well as inhibition. As in the first experiment, the size of the cueing effect did not differ significantly as a function of difficulty. Experiment 3 used a stronger manipulation of difficulty and obtained essentially the same results. However, there was some tendency for the effect of cueing to be larger in the more difficult condition. Experiment 4 tested the possibility that this tendency occurred because the perceptual task was so difficult it required voluntary eye movements. When the possible role of eye movements was minimized, there was no tendency for the effect of cueing to be larger in the difficult than in the easy condition. In Experiment 5 the possibility of eye movements was reduced even further and again, found no significant interaction between cueing and difficulty. It was concluded that cueing does not facilitate early perceptual processing. Rather, cueing affects the efficiency with which stimuli are selected for further processing from an unlimited capacity perceptual system to a limited capacity system.