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How many locations can be selected at once?

Steven L Franconeri¹, George A Alvarez, James T Enns

¹Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, IL 60208, USA. franconeri@northwestern.edu

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance

|October 11, 2007

Summary

The visual system

Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Visual Perception

Background:

The visual system employs mechanisms for selecting relevant information.
Location-based selection is a key attentional process.
Previous research suggested a fixed limit of 4 locations for visual selection.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the capacity of visual attention for selecting multiple locations simultaneously.
To determine how selection precision influences the number of locations that can be attended.

Main Methods:

Participants performed visual tasks requiring selection of locations.
Task demands varied in terms of the precision of the selection regions.
The number of concurrently selectable locations was measured.

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Main Results:

The capacity for selecting locations varied based on task demands.
Precise selection limited capacity to 2-3 locations.
Coarser selection allowed for up to 6-7 locations to be selected.

Conclusions:

The number of locations selectable by visual attention is not fixed.
Selection precision is a critical factor modulating attentional capacity.
Findings challenge previous assumptions of fixed limits in visual attention.