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Attention speeds processing across eccentricity: feature and conjunction searches.

Marisa Carrasco·Anna Marie Giordano·Brian McElree
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Abstract

We investigated whether the effect of covert attention on information accrual varies with eccentricity (4 degrees vs 9 degrees) and the complexity of the visual search task (feature vs conjunction). We used speed-accuracy tradeoff procedures to derive conjoint measures of the speed of information processing and accuracy in each search task. Information processing was slower with more complex conjunction searches than with simpler feature searches, and overall it was faster at peripheral (9 degrees) than parafoveal (4 degrees) locations in both search types. Covert attention increased discriminability and accelerated information accrual at both eccentricities, and the magnitude of this attentional effect was the same for both feature (simple) and conjunction (complex) searches. Interestingly, in contrast to the compensatory effect of covert attention on information processing at iso-eccentric locations (temporal performance fields), covert attention did not eliminate speed differences across eccentricity.

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AttentionFixation, OcularHumansPsychophysicsReaction TimeVisual FieldsVisual PerceptionJournal ArticleResearch Support, N.I.H., ExtramuralResearch Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

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Marisa Carrasco, Anna Marie Giordano, Brian McElree. 2006-02-14. Attention speeds processing across eccentricity: feature and conjunction searches.. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2005.12.015

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