Drew Trafton, McCollough Andrew W, Horowitz Todd S, Vogel Edward K
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2009 Apr;16(2):411-7. doi: 10.3758/PBR.16.2.411.
What is the role of attention in multiple-object tracking? Does attention enhance target representations, suppress distractor representations, or both? It is difficult to ask this question in a purely behavioral paradigm without altering the very attentional allocation one is trying to measure. In the present study, we used event-related potentials to examine the early visual evoked responses to task-irrelevant probes without requiring an additional detection task. Subjects tracked two targets among four moving distractors and four stationary distractors. Brief probes were flashed on targets, moving distractors, stationary distractors, or empty space. We obtained a significant enhancement of the visually evoked P1 and N1 components (approximately 100-150 msec) for probes on targets, relative to distractors. Furthermore, good trackers showed larger differences between target and distractor probes than did poor trackers. These results provide evidence of early attentional enhancement of tracked target items and also provide a novel approach to measuring attentional allocation during tracking.
注意力在多目标追踪中起什么作用？注意力是增强了目标表征、抑制了干扰物表征，还是两者皆有？在不改变试图测量的注意力分配的情况下，很难在纯粹的行为范式中提出这个问题。在本研究中，我们使用事件相关电位来检查对与任务无关的探测刺激的早期视觉诱发反应，而无需额外的检测任务。受试者在四个移动干扰物和四个静止干扰物中追踪两个目标。简短的探测刺激在目标、移动干扰物、静止干扰物或空白处闪现。相对于干扰物，我们发现对于目标上的探测刺激，视觉诱发的P1和N1成分（约100 - 150毫秒）有显著增强。此外，优秀的追踪者在目标和干扰物探测刺激之间的差异比差的追踪者更大。这些结果提供了早期注意力增强被追踪目标项目的证据，也提供了一种在追踪过程中测量注意力分配的新方法。
