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Electrophysiological measurement of rapid shifts of attention during visual search

Author

Listed:
  • Geoffrey F. Woodman

    (University of Iowa)

  • Steven J. Luck

    (University of Iowa)

Abstract

The perception of natural visual scenes that contain many objects poses computational problems that are absent when objects are perceived in isolation1. Vision researchers have captured this attribute of real-world perception in the laboratory by using visual search tasks, in which subjects search for a target object in arrays containing varying numbers of non-target distractor objects. Under many conditions, the amount of time required to detect a visual search target increases as the number of objects in the stimulus array increases, and some investigators have proposed that this reflects the serial application of attention to the individual objects in the array2,3. However, other investigators have argued that this pattern of results may instead be due to limitations in the processing capacity of a parallel processing system that identifies multiple objects concurrently4,5. Here we attempt to address this longstanding controversy by using an electrophysiological marker of the moment-by-moment direction of attention — the N2pc component of the event-related potential waveform — to show that attention shifts rapidly among objects during visual search.

Suggested Citation

  • Geoffrey F. Woodman & Steven J. Luck, 1999. "Electrophysiological measurement of rapid shifts of attention during visual search," Nature, Nature, vol. 400(6747), pages 867-869, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:400:y:1999:i:6747:d:10.1038_23698
    DOI: 10.1038/23698
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    Cited by:

    1. Joseph W. MacInnes & Roopali Bhatnagar, 2017. "Where Does Attention Go When Facilitation is Absent?," HSE Working papers WP BRP 85/PSY/2017, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    2. Maxim A. Ulanov & Yury Y. Shtyrov & Tatiana A. Stroganova, 2017. "Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation as a Tool to Induce Language Recovery in Patients with Post-Stroke Aphasia: An Overview of Studies," HSE Working papers WP BRP 86/PSY/2017, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    3. Guomei Zhou & Zhijie Cheng & Zhenzhu Yue & Colin Tredoux & Jibo He & Ling Wang, 2015. "Own-Race Faces Capture Attention Faster than Other-Race Faces: Evidence from Response Time and the N2pc," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(6), pages 1-15, June.

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