Cite as:
Kim J, Park J, 2003, "The phenomenology of attention in a selective-attention task with distractors" Perception 32 ECVP Abstract Supplement

The phenomenology of attention in a selective-attention task with distractors

J Kim, J Park

In the study of the effect of attention on the phenomenal appearance of objects, Prinzmetal et al (1998 Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 24 261 - 282) claimed that the phenomenal vividness of an attended object resulted from the reduced variability of percepts, not from a representational change. However, we (2001 Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science 42 Supplement, 865) examined the possibility that the target stimulus in their task was too simple to properly reveal the effect of attention on the perceptual appearance, and, using a selective-attention task with a composite target, we showed that the effect of attention on the perceptual appearance is due to the representational change as well as the response variability. We note that there are two points to be further examined for consolidating this conclusion. One point is task difficulty and the other is related to the task itself. To investigate further into these points, we adopted a conventional selective-attention task with distractors. Subjects were instructed to determine whether the central matrix of letters had contained the letter F or T and at the same time to identify the colour or orientation of the peripheral target among the distractors of desaturated colour or partial line squares, respectively. We found again in this relatively easy and conventional selective-attention task that significant mean shifts occurred for colour and orientation percepts in the diverted-attention condition, which verifies our previous results.

[Supported by KAIST Basic Research Fund.]

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