Chen Xi, Zhou Xiaolin
Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2015 Jul;77(5):1596-607. doi: 10.3758/s13414-015-0886-5.
The attentional blink (AB) refers to a deficit in reporting the second of two targets (T2) in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream when this target is presented less than 500 ms after the onset of the first target (T1). It is under debate whether the AB originates from a limitation of cognitive resources or from an attentional suppression process triggered by a distractor or by target discontinuity. In this study, we placed a distractor (D(inter)) or an extra target (T(inter)) between T1 and T2 while at the same time manipulating the time interval between D(inter) (or T(inter)) and T2 (0, 200, or 500 ms). The level of attentional enhancement induced by the detection of T1 was also manipulated by adding external noise to T1. The results showed that, as compared to the dual-target condition, T2 performance was better in the consecutive-target condition, when T2 was close in time to T(inter) (i.e., the spread of sparing), but was worse with a longer interval between T2 and the preceding item. Adding external noise to T1 improved T2 performance when T2 was close in time to the preceding item, irrespective of whether this item was D(inter) or T(inter). These findings present difficulties for the existing models of the AB, although the overall pattern observed is generally more consistent with the episodic simultaneous-type, serial-token (eSTST) model than with conventional resource accounts or distractor-based attentional selection accounts of the AB.
注意瞬脱（AB）是指在快速序列视觉呈现（RSVP）流中，当第二个目标（T2）在第一个目标（T1）出现后不到500毫秒呈现时，报告该目标的能力出现缺陷。注意瞬脱是源于认知资源的限制，还是由干扰物或目标不连续性引发的注意抑制过程，目前仍存在争议。在本研究中，我们在T1和T2之间放置了一个干扰物（D(inter)）或一个额外目标（T(inter)），同时操纵D(inter)（或T(inter)）与T2之间的时间间隔（0、200或500毫秒）。通过向T1添加外部噪声，还操纵了检测T1所诱发的注意增强水平。结果表明，与双目标条件相比，当T2在时间上接近T(inter)时（即节省扩散），连续目标条件下T2的表现更好，但当T2与前一项之间的间隔较长时，表现更差。当T(inter)在时间上接近前一项时，无论该项是D(inter)还是T(inter)，向T1添加外部噪声都能提高T2的表现。这些发现给现有的注意瞬脱模型带来了困难，尽管观察到的总体模式通常与情景同时型、序列令牌（eSTST）模型比与传统的资源账户或基于干扰物的注意选择账户的注意瞬脱更一致。
