Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, Vanderbilt University.
Psychol Sci. 2012 Oct 1;23(10):1159-67. doi: 10.1177/0956797612440100. Epub 2012 Aug 28.
Binocular rivalry refers to the unstable perceptual experience that arises when an observer views a different image with each eye: Each image reaches awareness in turn as the other becomes temporarily invisible. Using a novel experimental paradigm, we provide the first direct, perceptual evidence that binocular rivalry occurs only in the presence of attention. Observers in our experiment withdrew attention from a binocular rivalry stimulus shortly after one of the eyes' images was forced to visibility. Seconds later, they shifted attention back to the stimulus to report their perception. For all observers, reported perception strongly and significantly deviated from the results that would be expected if binocular rivalry continued during inattention. Strikingly, reports instead exactly matched those obtained when the stimulus was physically removed for seconds rather than left unattended. These results show that disregarding a binocular rivalry stimulus is equivalent to having it removed from view. Thus, inattention abolishes binocular rivalry.
当另一个图像暂时不可见时，每个图像轮流到达意识。使用一种新颖的实验范式，我们提供了第一个直接的、知觉上的证据，表明双眼竞争仅在注意力存在的情况下发生。在我们的实验中，观察者在一只眼睛的图像被强制可见后不久就将注意力从双眼竞争刺激物上撤回。几秒钟后，他们将注意力转移回刺激物，报告他们的感知。对于所有观察者，报告的感知与如果在注意力不集中期间双眼竞争继续进行时所预期的结果强烈而显著地偏离。引人注目的是，报告的结果与将刺激物物理移除几秒钟而不是不关注时得到的结果完全匹配。这些结果表明，忽略双眼竞争刺激物相当于将其从视线中移除。因此，注意力不集中会消除双眼竞争。
