Preattentive and Attentive Visual Information Processing

小行星93119356 这个项目旨在研究注意选择性的时间和空间方面。 在空间域中，本研究旨在阐明前注意和焦点注意过程在任务执行中是如何合作的。 在时间域中，重点是早期促进和后来的抑制后，一个无信息的线索，与澄清的目标时，加工是视网膜为中心的，环境为基础的，对象为基础的，或对象为中心。 第一组实验旨在确定受试者在复杂的显示屏中搜索相关信息时避免分心的效率。 现有的工作已经导致了相互矛盾的理论解释的表现，在这样的任务，和拟议的研究应该有助于这些竞争的替代品之间的决定。 第二组实验探索了线索的后果（例如，昏暗光线的短暂变亮），将注意力引向特定位置。 这样的提示提高了检测在提示位置处呈现的目标的能力。 然而，令人惊讶的是，这种改善是短暂的（约1/2秒），并随后是一个更持久的性能下降。 建议的实验是一个努力来解释的因素，导致这种性能下降。 除了理论意义外，这两组实验在实验室之外的世界也有意义。 这项工作与工作场所的许多环境有关，并可能导致发现减少未能注意的有时是灾难性后果的方法。 ****

93119356 Egeth This project is designed to examine the temporal and spatial aspects of attentional selectivity. In the spatial domain, the research is designed to clarify how preattentive and focal attentive processes cooperate in the performance of tasks. In the temporal domain, the focus is on early facilitation and later inhibition following an uninformative cue, with a goal of clarifying when processing is retinocentric, environmentally based, object based, or object centered. The first set of proposed experiments is designed to determine the efficiency with which subjects can avoid distracting material as they search through complicated displays looking for relevant information. Existing work has led to conflicting theoretical explanations of performance in such tasks; and the proposed research should help decide among these competing alternatives. A second set of experiments explores the aftermath of a cue (e.g., the brief brightening of a dim light) that directs attention to a specific location. Such a cue improves the ability to detect targets presented at the cued location. However, what is surprising is that such improvement is short-lived (about 1/2 sec), and is followed by a longer lasting performance decrement. The proposed experiments are an effort to explain the factors that cause this performance decrement. In addition to their theoretical significance, both sets of experiments have significance in the world outside the laboratory. Such work is pertinent to many settings in the work place and may lead to the discovery of methods to reduce the sometimes catastrophic consequences of a failure to pay attention. ****