Voluntary triggering of the first target attenuates the attentional blink

The term attentional blink (AB) refers to a failure in identifying the second of two targets, separated by less than 500 ms, embedded in a rapid succession of nontargets. To examine whether the expectation of the onset of the first target affects the AB, we compared the magnitudes of the AB deficit when participants triggered the appearance of the first target and when the target was presented automatically at some time point, as in traditional AB studies. In Experiment 1, the first target appeared immediately after a participant's voluntary keypress, revealing that the accuracy for identifying the first target increased and that the AB deficit was attenuated. In Experiment 2, the temporal delay between a voluntary keypress and the first-target presentation was manipulated. The results showed that both targets could be reported accurately only when the first target was presented within 300 ms after the action. In Experiment 3, we ruled out an alternative explanation that would attribute the facilitation effect to mere physical movement, by examining the accuracy of target identification when participants voluntarily pressed a key but that action was unrelated to the onset of the first target. Taken together, the results suggest that voluntary action to trigger the onset of a visual target facilitates processing and reduces the subsequent AB deficit when the target appears within 300 ms of the action.