Personal names and the attentional blink: a visual "cocktail party" effect

Four experiments were carried out to investigate an early- versus late-selection explanation for the attentional blink (AB). In both Experiments 1 and 2, 3 groups of participants were required to identify a noun (Experiment 1) or a name (Experiment 2) target (experimental conditions) and then to identify the presence or absence of a 2nd target (probe), which was their own name, another name, or a specified noun from among a noun distractor stream (Experiment 1) or a name distractor stream (Experiment 2). The conclusions drawn are that individuals do not experience an AB for their own names but do for either other names or nouns. In Experiments 3 and 4, either the participant's own name or another name was presented, as the target and as the item that immediately followed the target, respectively. An AB effect was revealed in both experimental conditions. The results of these experiments are interpreted as support for a late-selection interference account of the AB.