Yeshurun Yaffa, Carrasco Marisa
Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Percept Psychophys. 2008 Jan;70(1):104-13. doi: 10.3758/pp.70.1.104.
It has been shown that transient attention enhances spatial resolution, but is the effect of transient attention on spatial resolution modulated by the size of the attentional cue? Would a gradual increase in the size of the cue lead to a gradual decrement in spatial resolution? To test these hypotheses, we used a texture segmentation task in which performance depends on spatial resolution, and systematically manipulated the size of the attentional cue: A bar of different lengths (Experiment 1) or a frame of different sizes (Experiments 2-3) indicated the target region in a texture segmentation display. Observers indicated whether a target patch region (oriented line elements in a background of an orthogonal orientation), appearing at a range of eccentricities, was present in the first or the second interval. We replicated the attentional enhancement of spatial resolution found with small cues; attention improved performance at peripheral locations but impaired performance at central locations. However, there was no evidence of gradual resolution decrement with large cues. Transient attention enhanced spatial resolution at the attended location when it was attracted to that location by a small cue but did not affect resolution when it was attracted by a large cue. These results indicate that transient attention cannot adapt its operation on spatial resolution on the basis of the size of the attentional cue.
研究表明，瞬态注意可提高空间分辨率，但瞬态注意对空间分辨率的影响是否会受到注意线索大小的调节？线索大小的逐渐增加是否会导致空间分辨率的逐渐降低？为了检验这些假设，我们使用了一种纹理分割任务，其表现取决于空间分辨率，并系统地操纵了注意线索的大小：不同长度的条（实验1）或不同大小的框（实验2 - 3）在纹理分割显示中指示目标区域。观察者指出在第一或第二时间间隔内，在一系列不同离心率处出现的目标斑块区域（在正交方向背景中的定向线条元素）是否存在。我们重复了小线索所带来的空间分辨率的注意增强效应；注意提高了外周位置的表现，但损害了中心位置的表现。然而，没有证据表明大线索会导致分辨率逐渐降低。当瞬态注意被小线索吸引到某个位置时，它会提高该位置的空间分辨率，但当被大线索吸引时，它不会影响分辨率。这些结果表明，瞬态注意不能根据注意线索的大小来调整其对空间分辨率的作用。
