Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Blinding

Blinding

Blinding is a commonly used method of not telling participants which treatment a subject is receiving. Blinding is a critical part of a randomized control trial or RCT. It reduces the bias that affects the results. In an RCT, blinding is used in the form of a placebo. A placebo effect occurs when untreated subjects falsely believe they have received the treatment and report improved symptoms. A placebo or a dummy treatment is administered to subjects to negate the bias caused by such an effect.

Masking and Demasking Agents

Masking and Demasking Agents

EDTA titrations may necessitate masking and demasking agents to temporarily protect a particular metal ion in a mixture from the EDTA reaction. These agents facilitate the sequential analysis of the metal ions by forming stable complexes with some—but not all—metal ions during certain steps.
There are many masking agents, such as cyanide, fluoride, triethanolamine, thiourea, and 2,3-bis(sulfanyl)propan-1-ol (formerly 2,3-dimercapto-1-propanol), with the masking agent chosen based on the metal...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Learned statistical regularity modulates anticipatory micro-saccades toward suppressed distractor locations.

Nature communications·2026

Same author

Visual Selection Is Spatially Constrained During Working Memory Consolidation.

Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006)·2026

Same author

35+ years of the additional singleton task: Design features and guidelines.

Attention, perception & psychophysics·2026

Same author

Dynamic competition between bottom-up saliency and top-down goals in early visual cortex.

Communications biology·2026

Same author

Incidental learning of time-event relationships across processing stages.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026

Same author

Learning alters salience and proactive attentional priority.

Communications psychology·2026

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 26, 2026

A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets

A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets

Published on: December 5, 2014

Unmasking the attentional blink.

Mark R Nieuwenstein¹, Mary C Potter, Jan Theeuwes

¹Department of Cognitive Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. MR.Nieuwenstein@psy.vu.nl

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance

|January 28, 2009

Summary

The attentional blink, a failure to see a second target, occurs even without distractors. This visual attention deficit stems from the difficulty of engaging attention twice in rapid succession.

More Related Videos

Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity

Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity

Published on: March 18, 2019

Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking

Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking

Published on: August 29, 2018

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 26, 2026

A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets

A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets

Published on: December 5, 2014

Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity

Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity

Published on: March 18, 2019

Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking

Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking

Published on: August 29, 2018

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Visual Attention

Background:

The attentional blink (AB) is a phenomenon where observers miss a second visual target (T2) if it appears shortly after a first target (T1).
Previous research suggested distractors play a key role in the AB, as it diminishes when targets are consecutive.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the role of distractors in the attentional blink.
To determine if the AB can occur in the absence of distractors.
To identify the fundamental cause of the attentional blink.

Main Methods:

Presenting two visual targets (T1 and T2) separated by a blank interval, with and without distractors.
Manipulating the intertarget interval and using precues to assess T2 identification accuracy.

Main Results:

An attentional blink was observed even when targets were separated only by a blank interval, indicating distractors are not essential.
The impairment in identifying T2 was reduced when the blank interval was filled with additional targets or when T2 was precued.

Conclusions:

The attentional blink is not solely caused by distractor interference.
The core mechanism of the attentional blink involves the difficulty of re-engaging attention for temporally discrete target events.