Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Fred J. Heyne Building, Room 126, 3695 Cullen Blvd, Houston, TX, 77204, USA.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2021 Jul;83(5):1971-1991. doi: 10.3758/s13414-021-02260-x. Epub 2021 Mar 22.
The attentional blink (AB) is often considered a top-down phenomenon because it is triggered by matching an initial target (T1) in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream to a search template. However, the AB is modulated when targets are emotional, and is evoked when a task-irrelevant, emotional critical distractor (CDI) replaces T1. Neither manipulation fully captures the interplay between bottom-up and top-down attention in the AB: Valenced targets intrinsically conflate top-down and bottom-up attention. The CDI approach cannot manipulate second target (T2) valence, which is critical because valenced T2s can "break through" the AB (in the target-manipulation approach). The present research resolves this methodological challenge by indirectly measuring whether a purely bottom-up CDI can modulate report of a subsequent T2. This novel approach adds a valenced CDI to the "classic," two-target AB. Participants viewed RSVP streams containing a T1-CDI pair preceding a variable lag to T2. If the CDI's valence is sufficient to survive the AB, it should modulate T2 performance, indirectly signaling bottom-up capture by an emotional stimulus. Contrary to this prediction, CDI valence only affected the AB when CDIs were also extremely visually conspicuous. Thus, emotional valence alone is insufficient to modulate the AB.
注意瞬脱（AB）通常被认为是一种自上而下的现象，因为它是由在快速连续视觉呈现（RSVP）流中匹配初始目标（T1）与搜索模板来触发的。然而，当目标是情绪性的时，AB 会被调节，并且当一个与任务无关的、情绪性的关键分心物（CDI）取代 T1 时，AB 会被唤起。这两种操作都不能完全捕捉到 AB 中自上而下和自下而上注意力之间的相互作用：有情绪的目标本质上使自上而下和自下而上的注意力混合在一起。CDI 方法不能操纵第二个目标（T2）的情绪，这一点至关重要，因为有情绪的 T2 可以“突破”AB（在目标操作方法中）。本研究通过间接测量一个纯粹的自下而上的 CDI 是否可以调节随后的 T2 的报告，解决了这一方法学挑战。这种新方法在“经典”的双目标 AB 中增加了一个有情绪的 CDI。参与者观看包含 T1-CDI 对的 RSVP 流，在 T2 之前有一个可变的滞后。如果 CDI 的情绪足以在 AB 中幸存下来，它应该会调节 T2 的表现，这间接表明情绪刺激引起了自下而上的捕获。与这一预测相反，只有当 CDI 极其明显可见时，CDI 的情绪才会影响 AB。因此，情绪效价本身不足以调节 AB。
