Models of the attentional blink phenomenon (AB) typically assume that unattended information is processed to the post-perceptual level prior to selection for access to consciousness. The present experiments test this assumption by manipulating the perceptual load of the first target task (T1) and whether the second target (T2) was the participant's own name or someone else's name. In three experiments, increasing T1-load increased the severity of the AB for personal names. The results suggest that selection during the AB is not fixed at the post-perceptual stage, but rather the stage at which selection occurs during the AB is flexible.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.