Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Objects and events in the attentional blink.

Dianne M Sheppard1, John Duncan, Kinnron L Shapiro

  • 1School of Psychology, University of Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd. dianne.sheppard@med.monash.edu.au

Psychological Science
|September 11, 2002
PubMed
Summary

The attentional blink (AB) is not avoided when judging brief temporal gaps. An AB occurs when attention shifts to a new event, like a longer gap creating a distinct temporal stream.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Learning shapes neural geometry in the primate prefrontal cortex.

Nature neuroscience·2026
Same author

Workplace Outcomes After Mental Health Disclosure: The Critical Influence of Supervisor Reactions.

Journal of occupational rehabilitation·2025
Same author

External task switches activate default mode regions without enhanced processing of the surrounding scene.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2025
Same author

Default mode network activation at task switches reflects mental task-set structure.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2025
Same author

Domain general frontoparietal regions show modality-dependent coding of auditory and visual rules.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2025
Same author

Psychometric evaluation of the Positivum beliefs and perceptions scales to inform occupational rehabilitation following injury.

PloS one·2025

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Visual Perception

Background:

  • The attentional blink (AB) impairs processing of a second target (T2) when it follows closely after a first target (T1).
  • An exception to the AB was observed when T1 was a brief temporal gap in a letter stream, suggesting ABs require patterned targets.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether the attentional blink (AB) is triggered by attention to patterned objects or by the parsing of temporal events.
  • To determine the conditions under which temporal judgments elicit or prevent the attentional blink.

Main Methods:

  • Experiments involved presenting rapid visual targets (T1 and T2) and requiring participants to perform duration judgments or identification tasks.
  • Perceptual judgments of letter streams with embedded gaps were used to analyze stream segmentation.

Related Experiment Videos

  • The attentional blink was measured by the accuracy of T2 identification or discrimination.

    • Main Results:

    • Duration judgments of brief temporal gaps did not elicit an attentional blink.
    • The attentional blink was reestablished when T1 was an identifiable letter or a longer temporal gap.
    • Perceptual analysis revealed that longer gaps create distinct temporal streams, unlike brief gaps.

    Conclusions:

    • The attentional blink is not solely triggered by attention to patterned objects.
    • An attentional blink occurs when attention shifts to a newly defined event, such as a temporally distinct stream or a higher-level object identification.
    • Temporal events are parsed hierarchically, similar to spatial objects, influencing attentional blink phenomena.