On the benefits of transient attention across the visual field

There are well-known differences in resolution and performance across the visual field with performance generally better for the lower than the upper visual hemifield. Here we attempted to assess how transient attention summoned by a peripheral precue affects performance across the visual field. Four different attentional precueing tasks were used, varying in difficulty and attentional load. When a single discrimination target was presented (experiments 1 and 2), precues that summon transient attention had very little, if any, effect upon performance. However, when the target was presented among distractors (experiments 3 and 4), the precue had a substantial effect upon discrimination performance. The results showed that asymmetries in visual resolution between the upper and lower hemifields become more pronounced with increasing eccentricity. Furthermore, when the observers performed a precued acuity task with distractors, involving the judgment of the relative position of a small disk within a larger one, there was an asymmetry in the transient attentional effect on discrimination performance; the benefits of transient attention were larger in the upper than in the lower hemifield. Areas in the visual field where visual performance is generally worse thus appear to receive the largest attentional boost when needed. Possible ecological explanations for this are discussed.