Attention 'capture' by the flash-lag flash
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Updated: Aug 7, 2026

Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking
Published on: August 29, 2018
Mark Chappell1, Trevor J Hine, Charmaine Acworth
1Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Research Centre, Griffith University, Mt Gravatt, 4111, Qld 4111, Australia. M.Chappell@griffith.edu.au
Abstract:
We report data from eight participants who made alignment judgements between a moving object and a stationary, continuously visible 'landmark'. A reversing object had to overshoot the landmark by a significant amount in order to appear to reverse aligned with it. In addition, an adjacent flash irrelevant to the judgment task reliably increased this illusory 'foreshortening'. This and other results are most simply explained by a model in which the flash causes attentional capture, complemented by processes of temporal integration, or backward inhibition, and object representation. A flash used to probe the perception of a moving object's position disrupts that very perception.

