TY - JOUR
T1 - Distance is relative
T2 - Inattentional blindness critically depends on the breadth of the attentional focus
AU - Kreitz, Carina
AU - Hüttermann, Stefanie
AU - Memmert, Daniel
PY - 2020/2/1
Y1 - 2020/2/1
N2 - Inattentional blindness – the phenomenon that we sometimes miss salient stimuli in our direct view when they appear unexpectedly and attention is focused on something else - is modulated by various parameters, including distance of the unexpected stimulus from the attentional focus. In two experiments, we expanded the existing literature on spatial factors influencing inattentional blindness as well as theories on the spatial distribution of attention. Noticing rates of unexpected objects were significantly higher when they appeared outside instead of inside the bounds of primary task stimuli. Thus, our results do neither support the account that spatial attention is tuned as a spotlight that includes relevant targets and everything in between nor an account of purely object-based attentional orientation. Instead, the results speak in favor of an inhibitory area between two attended targets. Experiment 2 replicated these surprising findings and additionally demonstrated that they were not confounded by task.
AB - Inattentional blindness – the phenomenon that we sometimes miss salient stimuli in our direct view when they appear unexpectedly and attention is focused on something else - is modulated by various parameters, including distance of the unexpected stimulus from the attentional focus. In two experiments, we expanded the existing literature on spatial factors influencing inattentional blindness as well as theories on the spatial distribution of attention. Noticing rates of unexpected objects were significantly higher when they appeared outside instead of inside the bounds of primary task stimuli. Thus, our results do neither support the account that spatial attention is tuned as a spotlight that includes relevant targets and everything in between nor an account of purely object-based attentional orientation. Instead, the results speak in favor of an inhibitory area between two attended targets. Experiment 2 replicated these surprising findings and additionally demonstrated that they were not confounded by task.
KW - Attention window
KW - Full-attention trial
KW - Inattentional blindness
KW - Inhibition
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/d2f7671c-4cbf-36d5-b61f-04069935d686/
U2 - 10.1016/j.concog.2020.102878
DO - 10.1016/j.concog.2020.102878
M3 - Journal articles
SN - 1053-8100
VL - 78
JO - Consciousness and cognition : an international journal
JF - Consciousness and cognition : an international journal
IS - 78
M1 - 102878
ER -