Selective visual attention modulates the direct tilt aftereffect

Spivey, Michael J.; Spirn, Marc J.

doi:10.3758/bf03212153

Cited by 67 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 54 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…With the same maximumcontrast probe employed, spatial attention does modulate adaptation to visible adaptors ( Kanai et al 2006) (also see Spivey and Spirn 2000). With maximum-contrast probes, the effects of attention can only reflect a response gain.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Attention Can Modulate Unconscious Orientation Processing

et al. 2008

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A critical question for understanding the relationship between attention and awareness is whether attentional selection can occur in the absence of awareness (Koch and Tsuchiya 2007). Specifically, does allocation of attention to an invisible event impact the neural substrates responding to that event? By`invisible event' we refer to a visual stimulus that the observer is exposed to but (i) has no subjective impression of and (ii) performs at chance if obliged to guess about some aspect of its content, eg orientation.A recent study (Kanai et al 2006) claimed that the effects of spatial attention are restricted to conscious events. Adaptation to an oriented grating was augmented at the attended locations only if the adaptor was clearly visible and not when the adaptor was masked by interocular suppression. This claim is at odds with reports showing that the responses of the primary visual cortex (V1) to irrelevant, invisible peripheral distractors (also masked by interocular suppression) are modulated by attentional load in a foveal task (Bahrami et al 2007). Another behavioural work (Montaser-Kouhsari and Rajimehr 2005) has also shown that spatial attention enhances orientation-specific adaptation to an adaptor rendered invisible by crowding.It is well established that the effects of sustained spatial attention on orientation processing depend on stimulus contrast (Ling and Carrasco 2006); for example, orientation discrimination is most profoundly modulated by attention at peri-threshold contrasts but attention has little impact on orientation discrimination at supra-threshold, asymptotic contrast levels. Thus, the recent failure to find an attentional effect for invisible adaptors (Kanai et al 2006) may be due to the use of high (50%) contrast adaptor gratings that were close to the asymptotic saturation level of the contrast response function, as well as to their assessment of post-adaptation orientation discrimination with maximum contrast probes. Any subtle, contrast-dependent effects of attention may have been obliterated by employing such high-contrast stimuli (cf Blake et al 2006).In order to address this possibility, we assessed orientation-specific adaptation to invisible adaptors, employing low-contrast adaptors that were far from the saturation Spatial attention can modulate unconscious orientation processing Perception, 2008, volume Abstract. It has recently been suggested that visual spatial attention can only affect consciously perceived events. We measured the effects of sustained spatial attention on orientation-selective adaptation to gratings, rendered invisible by prolonged interocular suppression. Spatial attention augmented the orientation-selective adaptation to invisible adaptor orientation. The effect of attention was clearest for test stimuli at peri-threshold, intermediate contrast levels, suggesting that previous negative results were due to assessing orientation discrimination at maximum contrast. On the basis of these findings we propose a constrained hypothesis for the difference ...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Attention Can Modulate Unconscious Orientation Processing

et al. 2008

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Spivey and Spirn (2000) found that observers who viewed two colored gratings that overlapped in space but differed in orientation could selectively adapt to one of the gratings via attention, resulting in a tilt aftereffect in the direction opposite to the attended grating. Using a different paradigm, Mitchell, Stoner, and Reynolds (2004) demonstrated the effect of attention on dominance in binocular rivalry.…”

Section: Other Manifestations Of Object Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Object-based attention: A tutorial review

Chen

2012

Atten Percept Psychophys

196

162

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This tutorial provides a selective review of research on object-based deployment of attention. It focuses primarily on behavioral studies with human observers. The tutorial is divided into five sections. It starts with an introduction to object-based attention and a description of the three commonly used experimental paradigms in objectbased attention research. These are followed by a review of a variety of manifestations of object effects and the factors that influence object segmentation. The final two sections are devoted to two key issues in object-based research: the mechanisms that give rise to the object effects and the role of space in object-based selection.

show abstract

“…It has long been demonstrated that prolonged exposure to one type of stimulus reduces sensitivity to those stimulus parameters and other similar stimuli, thus allowing for the selectivity for a particular variable or set of variables, such as spatial frequency and orientation (Blakemore & Campbell, 1969;Graham, 1989;Movshon & Lennie, 1979;Saul & Cynader, 1989). By manipulating attention during adaptation, researchers have shown that attention modulates the effect of adaptation on the magnitude of motion (e.g., Chaudhuri, 1990), figural (e.g., Suzuki, 2001), and tilt (e.g., Spivey & Spirn, 2000) aftereffects, and even for illusory contours in the case of tilt aftereffects (Montaser-Kouhsari & Rajimehr, 2004). In contrast, the present study exploits our knowledge of how selective adaptation alters perceptual input to address the nature of attentional mechanisms and spatial frequency sensitivity across eccentricities.…”

Section: The Present Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%