Comonalities of control Mechanisms for saccade and Spatial attention

在第一年，研究工作的方向是选择一个适当的任务。结果表明，反应时间可能不是一个好的选择，因为它可能被与空间注意的机制和工作无关的过程所污染（即，反应启动和编程的直接促进或引发）。因此，知觉任务似乎是更好的选择。对文献的调查表明，Weiselgartner和Sperling（1987）提出的多项目顺序呈现方法可以满足要求。该方法是在短时间内在同一位置连续呈现多个项目。该方法避免了自动注意捕获，只允许受控注意过程的工作，不依赖于反应时测量，因此被认为适合本研究的目的。第二年，我们用该方法检验了差距效应不仅会促进扫视潜伏期，而且会促进注意转移的假设。两个实验的结果，一个是天真的受试者，另一个是两个受过训练的受试者，不能证实这一假设。然而，由于Mackeben和Nakayama（1993）最近报道了空间注意转移的差距效应，人们认为澄清这一矛盾将有助于揭示空间注意促进我们视觉功能的机制。

In the first year, research efforts were directed to the selection of an appropriate task. The results suggested that reaction times might not be a good choice, since it might be contaminated by the processes that were not related to the mechanisms and workings of spatial attention (i.e., direct facilitation or priming of response initiation and programming). Therefore, a perceptual task seemed to be a better choice. A survey of the Literature suggested that the multiple-item sequential presentation method developed by Weiselgartner and Sperling (1987) would satisfy the requirements. The methodpresented multiple items successively at the same location in short time interval. The method was considered to be suitable for the purpose of the present research, because it could avoid automatic attention capturing, allowing only for the working of controlled attention processes and did not depend on reactiontime measures.In the second year, the hypothesis that the gap effect would facilitate not only saccadic latency but also that of attention shifts was tested with this method. The results of two experiments, one with naive subjects and the other with two trained subjects, could not confirm the hypothesis. However, since Mackeben and Nakayama (1993) recently reported the gap effects for spatial attention shifts using a vernier acuity task, it was felt that the clarification of this contradiction would help reveal the mechanisms with which spatial attention facilitates our visual functions.