Henderson Cynthia M, McClelland James L
Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2020 Feb;82(2):564-584. doi: 10.3758/s13414-019-01893-3.
We present new evidence about illusory conjunctions (ICs) suggesting that their current explanation requires revision. According to Feature Integration Theory (FIT; Treisman & Gelade Cognitive Psychology, 12, 97-136, 1980), focal attention to a single stimulus is required to bind its features into an integrated percept. FIT predicts that if attention is spread over multiple stimuli, features of these different stimuli can be combined into a single percept and produce ICs. Treisman and Schmidt (Cognitive Psychology, 14, 107-141, 1982) and Cohen & Ivry (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 15(4), 650-663, 1989) supported this prediction. In the latter study, participants viewed brief displays containing two digits and two colored letters. Digit locations were pre-cued, and participants were instructed to prioritize the digits and to spread their attention across the region encompassed by the digits. Cohen & Ivry found that reports of one letter (the 'target') produced ICs when both letters appeared between the digits. Expanding on Cohen & Ivry's paradigm, we find that both letters do not need to appear between the digits to produce ICs. While the target letter was highly susceptible to ICs if the target appeared inside the position of a nearby digit, the position of the other letter was largely irrelevant. Our experimental results also argue that these ICs were not due to mnemonic errors occurring while the digits are being reported. Based on our findings, we propose that attention to the digits casts an attentional 'shadow' projecting towards fixation, interfering with processing of target letters in that shadow and allowing color information from elsewhere in the display to be included in the resulting percept.
我们提出了关于错觉性结合（ICs）的新证据，表明目前对其的解释需要修正。根据特征整合理论（FIT；特雷斯曼和吉拉德，《认知心理学》，第12卷，第97 - 136页，1980年），需要将注意力集中在单个刺激上，才能将其特征绑定成一个整合的知觉。FIT预测，如果注意力分散在多个刺激上，这些不同刺激的特征可以组合成一个单一的知觉并产生错觉性结合。特雷斯曼和施密特（《认知心理学》，第14卷，第107 - 141页，1982年）以及科恩和伊夫里（《实验心理学杂志：人类知觉与表现》，第15卷第4期，第650 - 663页，1989年）支持了这一预测。在后一项研究中，参与者观看包含两个数字和两个彩色字母的简短显示。数字位置预先给出提示，并且参与者被指示优先关注数字，并将注意力分散在数字所涵盖的区域。科恩和伊夫里发现，当两个字母都出现在数字之间时，对一个字母（“目标”）的报告产生了错觉性结合。在科恩和伊夫里的范式基础上进行扩展，我们发现两个字母不需要都出现在数字之间就能产生错觉性结合。如果目标出现在附近数字的位置内，目标字母极易产生错觉性结合，而另一个字母的位置在很大程度上无关紧要。我们的实验结果还表明，这些错觉性结合并非由于在报告数字时发生的记忆错误。基于我们的发现，我们提出对数字（位置）的注意会投射出一个朝向注视点的注意“阴影”，干扰该阴影中目标字母的加工，并使得来自显示中其他位置的颜色信息被纳入最终的知觉。
