Lukashova-Sanz Olga, Wahl Siegfried, Wallis Thomas S A, Rifai Katharina
Institute for Ophthalmic Research, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
Carl Zeiss Vision International GmbH, 73430 Aalen, Germany.
Vision (Basel). 2021 Apr 15;5(2):18. doi: 10.3390/vision5020018.
With rapidly developing technology, visual cues became a powerful tool for deliberate guiding of attention and affecting human performance. Using cues to manipulate attention introduces a trade-off between increased performance in cued, and decreased in not cued, locations. For higher efficacy of visual cues designed to purposely direct user's attention, it is important to know how manipulation of cue properties affects attention. In this verification study, we addressed how varying cue complexity impacts the allocation of spatial endogenous covert attention in space and time. To gradually vary cue complexity, the discriminability of the cue was systematically modulated using a shape-based design. Performance was compared in attended and unattended locations in an orientation-discrimination task. We evaluated additional temporal costs due to processing of a more complex cue by comparing performance at two different inter-stimulus intervals. From preliminary data, attention scaled with cue discriminability, even for supra-threshold cue discriminability. Furthermore, individual cue processing times partly impacted performance for the most complex, but not simpler cues. We conclude that, first, cue complexity expressed by discriminability modulates endogenous covert attention at supra-threshold cue discriminability levels, with increasing benefits and decreasing costs; second, it is important to consider the temporal processing costs of complex visual cues.
随着技术的迅速发展，视觉线索成为有意引导注意力和影响人类行为表现的有力工具。使用线索来操纵注意力会在提示位置的表现增强与未提示位置的表现下降之间产生权衡。为了提高旨在特意引导用户注意力的视觉线索的功效，了解线索属性的操纵如何影响注意力非常重要。在这项验证研究中，我们探讨了线索复杂性的变化如何在空间和时间上影响空间内源性隐蔽注意力的分配。为了逐步改变线索复杂性，使用基于形状的设计系统地调节线索的可辨别性。在方向辨别任务中，对提示位置和未提示位置的表现进行了比较。我们通过比较两种不同刺激间隔下的表现，评估了由于处理更复杂线索而产生的额外时间成本。从初步数据来看，即使对于超阈值线索可辨别性，注意力也与线索可辨别性成比例。此外，个体线索处理时间对最复杂但非较简单线索的表现有部分影响。我们得出结论，第一，由可辨别性表示的线索复杂性在超阈值线索可辨别性水平上调节内源性隐蔽注意力，效益增加而成本降低；第二，考虑复杂视觉线索的时间处理成本很重要。
