Department of Psychology, Research Center for Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
Department of Psychology, University of Sanya, Sanya, China.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2022 Oct;84(7):2127-2140. doi: 10.3758/s13414-021-02386-y. Epub 2021 Nov 24.
Although it is often assumed that spatial attention exists in the form of a unitary focus, the split-attention hypothesis proposes that attention can be simultaneously divided into two spatially noncontiguous positions and that the space in between can be ignored. However, whether split attention occurs directly based on the generation of attentional benefit or whether it requires a gradual divide from a unitary focus over time has not been clarified. In the present study, by using two spatial salient cues to direct the attention allocation of participants, we aimed to investigate whether attention requires time to divide from a unitary focus and whether the appearance time of split attention varies when the task difficulty level increases between experiments. The results showed that attention required time to divide from a unitary focus, and the position between the two cued positions was not excluded by attention when the stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) was 60 ms. However, as the task difficulty increased between experiments, the appearance time of split attention was earlier. These findings suggest that the appearance time of split attention has a certain flexibility and can be changed according to the task requirement, thus implying that split attention and unitary attention present some common attention mechanisms and that a split or unitary mode can be flexibly selected for an attention system.
虽然人们通常认为空间注意力以单一焦点的形式存在，但分散注意力假说提出，注意力可以同时分为两个不连续的空间位置，并且两者之间的空间可以被忽略。然而，分散注意力是直接基于注意力收益的产生，还是需要随着时间的推移从单一焦点逐渐分散，尚未得到明确阐明。在本研究中，我们通过使用两个空间显著提示来引导参与者的注意力分配，旨在探讨注意力是否需要时间从单一焦点分散，以及在实验之间任务难度水平增加时，分散注意力的出现时间是否会发生变化。结果表明，当刺激呈现时间间隔（SOA）为 60 毫秒时，注意力需要时间从单一焦点分散，并且在两个提示位置之间的位置不会被注意力排除。然而，随着实验之间任务难度的增加，分散注意力的出现时间更早。这些发现表明，分散注意力的出现时间具有一定的灵活性，可以根据任务要求进行改变，这意味着分散注意力和单一注意力具有一些共同的注意力机制，并且可以灵活地为注意力系统选择分散或单一模式。
