Temporal attention shortens perceptual latency: A temporal prior entry effect

Abstract

The prior entry hypothesis of attention holds that attended stimuli are perceived earlier than unattended stimuli. Whereas this speeding of perceptual processing has been repeatedly demonstrated for spatial attention, it has not been reported within the temporal domain. To fill this gap, we tested whether temporal attention accelerates auditory perceptual processing by employing event-related potentials as on-line indicators of perceptual processing. In a modified oddball paradigm, we presented a single tone in each trial, either a frequent standard tone or an infrequent deviant or target tone. Temporal attention to tones was manipulated via constant foreperiods. We observed that the latency of the N2, an event-related potential reflecting perceptual processing, is shortened by temporal attention. This result provides first evidence for the idea that temporal attention accelerates perceptual processing as suggested by the prior entry hypothesis.

Stimulus-focused attention speeds up auditory processing

“…This is in line with previous studies reporting sensory acceleration as an effect of attention in a tone detection task in noise (Okamoto et al, 2007) and in temporal perceptual judgment and (crossmodal) selective attention paradigms (e. g. Seibold et al, 2011;Vibell et al, 2007; for summary, see Spence, and Parise, 2010).…”

“…The speeding-up of perceptual, that is, sensory processing as an effect of attention was intensively investigated for more than a hundred years with various paradigms in different sensory modalities. However, evidence supporting the existence of the prior-entry effect, to date, is rather mixed (Di Russo and Spinelli, 1999;McDonald et al, 2005;Schneider and Bavelier, 2003;Schuller, and Rossion, 2001;Seibold et al, 2011;Shore et al, 2001;Spence et al, 2001;Vibell et al, 2007;Yates, and Nicholls, 2009;Zampini et al, 2005; for summary, see Spence, and Parise, 2010). Due to its superior temporal resolution, the method of event related brain potentials (ERPs) is a suitable choice for the investigation of changes in processing speed.…”

“…Consequently, attentional effects may be reflected not only in the enhancement of the N1 amplitude, but also in the decrease of the N1 latency. So far, attentional effects on N1 latency have been scarcely reported (e.g., Seibold et al, 2011 found that the latency of the N1 waveform decreased for target oddball sounds as the function of the preceding cue-target foreperiod in a cued oddball discrimination task), and only few studies addressed directly whether the latency of the magnetic counterpart of N1 (N1m) was affected by attention, with mixed results: Mäkinen et al (2004) found no attention-related effect, while Okamoto et al, 2007 found an attention-related latency decrease for tones presented in bandeliminated noise. The scarcity of positive reports may be rooted in the generally used range of experimental settings, which might not be optimal for the observation of attention-related latency-effects.…”

Response specific temporal expectancy: Evidence from a variable foreperiod paradigm

“…Temporal order judgments are facilitated when the stimuli appear at an expected point in time (Bausenhart, Rolke, & Ulrich, 2008;Correa, Sanabria, Spence, Tudela, & Lupiáñez, 2006c), and intervals tend to be perceived as longer when they appear at expected times (Grondin & Rammsayer, 2003). A further account of perceptual temporal expectancy claims that temporal expectancy speeds up the detection of stimulus onset (early-onset hypothesis; see Rolke & Hofmann, 2007;Seibold, Bausenhart, Rolke, & Ulrich, 2011a;Seibold, Fiedler, & Rolke, 2011b;Seifried, Ulrich, Bausenhart, Rolke, & Osman, 2010).…”

Components of attention modulated by temporal expectation.

“…E-mail: thomasalrik@gmail.com tens & Johnson, 2005) enhance target accuracy independently of motor speeding. The occurrence of temporal benefits at the per ceptual level has been further substantiated by studies of temporal order judgments suggesting that temporal cuing may enhance the temporal resolution of visual perception (Bausenhart, Rolke, & Ulrich, 2008;Correa, Sanabria, Spence, Tudela, & Lupiinez, 2006) and by an event-related-potential-based oddball paradigm indicating that temporal expectancies may accelerate perceptual processing (Correa, Sanabria, et al, 2006;Seibold, Fiedler, & Rolke, 2011).…”