Müller Matthias M, Hübner Ronald
Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, England, United Kingdom.
Psychol Sci. 2002 Mar;13(2):119-24. doi: 10.1111/1467-9280.00422.
Visual attention enables observers to extract and process high-priority information in the visualfield. Controversy remains as to whether or not observers can ignore information that falls within the spatial beam of attention. We used an objective physiological measure, the steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP), to investigate this question. A stream of flickering small, uppercase letters was embedded in the center of a stream of large, uppercase letters. A unitary beam would result in no difference of the SSVEP amplitude elicited by the small letter stream when it was attended versus ignored (i.e., when subjects attended the large letter stream). Contrary to this prediction, SSVEP amplitude increased by almost 100% when the small letter stream was attended compared with when it was ignored. The results support the notion that the attentional spotlight can be formed like a doughnut, processing central information differentially depending on whether it is attended or ignored.
视觉注意力使观察者能够在视野中提取和处理高优先级信息。关于观察者是否能够忽略落入注意力空间束范围内的信息，目前仍存在争议。我们使用一种客观的生理测量方法——稳态视觉诱发电位（SSVEP）来研究这个问题。一连串闪烁的小写大写字母被嵌入到一连串大写大写字母流的中心。如果是单一光束，那么当小写字母流被关注与被忽略时（即当受试者关注大写字母流时），由小写字母流引发的SSVEP振幅不会有差异。与这一预测相反，与被忽略时相比，当小写字母流被关注时，SSVEP振幅增加了近100%。结果支持了这样一种观点，即注意力聚光灯可以像甜甜圈一样形成，根据中央信息是被关注还是被忽略而进行不同的处理。
