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Updated: Apr 25, 2026
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Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity
Published on: March 18, 2019
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Interactions between voluntary and involuntary attention modulate the quality and temporal dynamics of visual
Michael A Grubb1, Alex L White, David J Heeger
1Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|August 14, 2014
Summary
Voluntary spatial attention helps process information faster and more accurately. Focusing endogenous attention can reduce distractions from exogenous cues, improving visual processing in dynamic environments.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Visual Attention Research
Background:
- Efficient neural resource allocation is crucial for navigating dynamic environments.
- Spatial attention, both voluntary (endogenous) and involuntary (exogenous), directs processing resources to relevant locations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the interaction between exogenous and endogenous spatial attention.
- To understand how competition between internal goals and external events is resolved in attention allocation.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) procedure to measure information accrual and discriminability over time.
- Conducted four additional experiments to verify findings at critical response delays.
Main Results:
- Both endogenous and exogenous attention improved information accrual and discriminability.
- Endogenous attention at the target location significantly reduced the impact of exogenous cues on information accrual.
- Exogenous cues had negligible effects on asymptotic discriminability when endogenous attention was focused.
Conclusions:
- Visual processing speed and quality are influenced by both internal and external attentional states.
- Voluntary attention can diminish the distracting effects of irrelevant peripheral events.
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