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A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets
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Attention blinks for selection, not perception or memory: reading sentences and reporting targets.

Mary C Potter1, Brad Wyble, Jennifer Olejarczyk

  • 1Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. mpotter@mit.edu

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The attentional blink, a deficit in perceiving a second target, occurs when identifying targets within a sentence. However, this blink disappears when targets are separate digits, suggesting selection, not perception, causes the blink.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Attention Studies

Background:

  • The attentional blink (AB) is a phenomenon where attention is briefly suppressed, impairing the detection of a second target.
  • Previous research indicates the AB occurs when identifying targets within a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP).

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether the attentional blink occurs when simultaneously reporting sentence content and target words.
  • To examine the effect of integrating targets within a sentence on the attentional blink phenomenon.
  • To differentiate between theories suggesting the AB stems from perception versus attentional selection.

Main Methods:

  • Participants performed sentence report tasks combined with target identification (words or digits).
  • Experiments varied whether targets were embedded within the sentence or presented as separate digits.
  • Performance was measured by accuracy in both sentence recall and target detection.

Main Results:

  • An attentional blink was consistently observed when participants reported only targets.
  • When reporting both sentence and targets, sentence recall remained accurate, but target detection showed an attentional blink if targets were words within the sentence.
  • No attentional blink occurred for targets (digits) when participants also reported the sentence, especially if targets were inserted.

Conclusions:

  • The attentional blink is influenced by the integration of targets within a concurrent task, like sentence reporting.
  • Findings challenge theories attributing the attentional blink solely to perceptual or memory limitations.
  • Results support the notion that the attentional blink arises from online attentional selection processes.