Liu Taosheng, Abrams Jared, Carrasco Marisa
Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
Psychol Sci. 2009 Mar;20(3):354-62. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02300.x. Epub 2009 Feb 23.
Voluntary (endogenous, sustained) covert spatial attention selects relevant sensory information for prioritized processing. The behavioral and neural consequences of such selection have been extensively documented, but its phenomenology has received little empirical investigation. We asked whether voluntary attention affects the subjective appearance of contrast--a fundamental dimension of visual perception. We used a demanding rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task to direct endogenous attention to a given location and measured perceived contrast at the attended and unattended locations. Attention increased perceived contrast of suprathreshold stimuli and also improved performance on a concurrent orientation discrimination task at the cued location. We ruled out response bias as an alternative account of the pattern of results. Thus, this study establishes that voluntary attention enhances perceived contrast. This phenomenological consequence links behavioral and neurophysiological studies on the effects of attention.
自愿（内源性、持续性）隐蔽空间注意会选择相关的感官信息进行优先处理。这种选择的行为和神经后果已有大量记录，但其现象学却很少受到实证研究。我们探究了自愿注意是否会影响对比度的主观呈现——视觉感知的一个基本维度。我们使用了一项要求较高的快速序列视觉呈现（RSVP）任务，将内源性注意引导至给定位置，并测量了被注意位置和未被注意位置的感知对比度。注意提高了阈上刺激的感知对比度，同时也提高了在提示位置进行的并发方向辨别任务的表现。我们排除了反应偏差作为结果模式的另一种解释。因此，本研究证实自愿注意会增强感知对比度。这种现象学后果将关于注意效应的行为研究和神经生理学研究联系了起来。
