PMID: 11605561Oct 19, 2001Paper

Is position "special" in visual attention? Evidence that top-down processes guide visual selection

Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology = Revue Canadienne De Psychologie Expérimentale
J M Gold, J Pratt

Abstract

The role of spatial position in selective visual processing has been the source of recent debate. Experiments by Tsal and Lavie (1988) and van der Heijden et al. (1996) have been designed to establish the status of position in visual selection. Tsal and Lavie found that observers tend to select letters from a briefly presented array according to position. Using the same paradigm, van der Heijden et al. found that observers tend to select according to colour, except under conditions of low contrast and unrestricted eye movements. The present study attempted to reconcile these findings by exploring the influence of top-down processes (task instructions) while explicitly controlling for eye movements. Experiment 1 demonstrated there was no inherent selection bias for stimuli similar to those used by van der Heijden et al., suggesting that the tendency to select according to colour found by van der Heijden et al. was due to task demands. Experiment 2 further established the role of top-down factors by replicating the results of van der Heijden et al. with our stimuli. Experiment 3 demonstrated that selection can be switched from colour to position by changing the demands of the task. These results suggest that selection may be acco...Continue Reading

Citations

Aug 27, 2005·Perception & Psychophysics·Esther Vierck, Jeff Miller
Mar 24, 2007·Perception & Psychophysics·Esther Vierck, Jeff Miller

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