School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Southport, QLD, 4222, Australia.
Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Southport, Australia.
Psychol Res. 2019 Oct;83(7):1426-1443. doi: 10.1007/s00426-018-1018-3. Epub 2018 Apr 24.
Whether focused visual attention can be divided has been the topic of much investigation, and there is a compelling body of evidence showing that, at least under certain conditions, attention can be divided and deployed as two independent foci. Three experiments were conducted to examine whether attention can be deployed in divided form from the outset, or whether it is first deployed as a unitary focus before being divided. To test this, we adapted the methodology of Jefferies, Enns, and Di Lollo (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 40: 465, 2014), who used a dual-stream Attentional Blink paradigm and two letter-pair targets. One aspect of the AB, Lag-1 sparing, has been shown to occur only if the second target pair appears within the focus of attention. By presenting the second target pair at various spatial locations and assessing the magnitude of Lag-1 sparing, we probed the spatial distribution of attention. By systematically manipulating the stimulus-onset-asynchrony between the targets, we also tracked changes to the spatial distribution of attention over time. The results showed that even under conditions which encourage the division of attention, the attentional focus is first deployed in unitary form before being divided. It is then maintained in divided form only briefly before settling on a single location.
集中视觉注意力是否可以被划分一直是许多研究的主题，有大量证据表明，至少在某些条件下，注意力可以被分为两个独立的焦点。我们进行了三个实验来检验注意力是否可以从一开始就以分散的形式被分配，或者它是否首先被集中分配，然后再被分散。为了测试这一点，我们采用了 Jefferies、Enns 和 Di Lollo 的研究方法（《实验心理学杂志：人类感知和表现》40：465，2014 年），他们使用了双流注意瞬脱范式和两个字母对目标。注意瞬脱的一个方面，即滞后 1 节省，只有在第二个目标对出现在注意力焦点内时才会发生。通过在不同的空间位置呈现第二个目标对，并评估滞后 1 节省的幅度，我们探测了注意力的空间分布。通过系统地操纵目标之间的刺激起始时间间隔，我们还跟踪了注意力的空间分布随时间的变化。结果表明，即使在鼓励注意力分散的条件下，注意力焦点也首先以集中的形式被分配，然后才被分散。之后，它只在一个单一的位置上短暂地保持分散状态，然后就会稳定下来。
