Flicker and the efficiency of cues for capturing attention

In this paper, we present new experimental results which speak of the topic of temporal properties of processes underlying the selection of spatial location. We used the double motion induction paradigm to assess the strength of the selective effects. Prior exposure of an area to flicker, decreased the effectiveness of a cueing spot presented later at that location. This effect lasted for at least 1.5 s. In further experiments, it was found that both static and flickering cues, with time, lose their effectiveness to facilitate processing. While the static cueing decays quickly to very low effectiveness, flicker cueing decays to a level of effectiveness which can be maintained for a long time. Thus with time two flickering cues presented with a temporal offset become equivalent to each other, but remain more effective than a static cue. We conclude that mechanisms coding temporal change determine cue effectiveness for capturing attention. Simple exponential decay functions with different temporal constants and different lower asymptotes can describe these effects.