Smith Daniel T, Schenk Thomas
Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit, Wolfson Research Institute, University of Durham, Queens Campus, Stockton on Tees, UK.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2010 Nov;63(11):2231-8. doi: 10.1080/17470211003592621. Epub 2010 Mar 23.
Peripheral cues trigger attention shifts, which facilitate perceptual processing and enhance visual awareness. However, this facilitation is superseded by an inhibition of return (IOR) effect, which biases attention away from the cued location. While the link between facilitatory effects of visual attention and awareness is well established, no study has reported negative effects of spatial cueing on visual awareness. This failure is puzzling, given the claim that attention is a necessary precondition for awareness. If attention is necessary for awareness, inhibiting attention should also inhibit awareness. This leads to a slightly counterintuitive prediction: Spatial cueing will inhibit awareness at long cue-target latencies. This study shows that subliminal peripheral cues exaggerate change blindness at long cue-change latencies, demonstrating that IOR can suppress visual awareness of changes and suggesting that IOR can directly affect the contents of consciousness.
外周线索会引发注意力转移，这有助于感知处理并增强视觉意识。然而，这种促进作用会被返回抑制（IOR）效应所取代，该效应会使注意力从线索提示的位置转移开。虽然视觉注意力的促进作用与意识之间的联系已得到充分确立，但尚无研究报告空间线索提示对视觉意识有负面影响。鉴于有人认为注意力是意识的必要前提，这种未能发现负面影响的情况令人费解。如果注意力是意识的必要条件，那么抑制注意力也应该抑制意识。这就导致了一个略显反直觉的预测：在长线索-目标间隔时间下，空间线索提示会抑制意识。本研究表明，阈下外周线索在长线索-变化间隔时间下会加剧变化盲视，这表明返回抑制可以抑制对变化的视觉意识，并表明返回抑制可以直接影响意识内容。
