Spatial Attention and Environmental Information

Navigating through our perceptual environment requires constant selection of behaviorally relevant information and irrelevant information. Spatial cues guide attention to information in the environment that is relevant to the current task. How does the amount of information provided by a location cu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance 2015-10, Vol.41 (5), p.1396-1408
Main Authors: Prinzmetal, William, Whiteford, Kelly L., Austerweil, Joseph L., Landau, Ayelet N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Attention
Attention - physiology
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive Processes
Cues
Environment
Experimental psychology
Human
Humans
Information processing
Models, Psychological
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Reaction Time
Reaction Time - physiology
Response time
Space Perception - physiology
Spatial Perception
Young Adult
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Summary:Navigating through our perceptual environment requires constant selection of behaviorally relevant information and irrelevant information. Spatial cues guide attention to information in the environment that is relevant to the current task. How does the amount of information provided by a location cue and irrelevant information influence the deployment of attention and what are the processes underlying this effect? To address these questions, we used a spatial cueing paradigm to measure the relationship between cue predictability (measured in bits of information) and the voluntary attention effect, the benefit in reaction time (RT) because of cueing a target. We found a linear relationship between cue predictability and the attention effect. To analyze the cognitive processes producing this effect, we used a simple RT model, the Linear Ballistic Accumulator model. We found that informative cues reduced the amount of evidence necessary to make a response (the threshold), regardless of the presence of irrelevant information (i.e., distractors). However, a change in the rate of evidence accumulation occurred when distractors were present in the display. Thus, the mechanisms underlying the deployment of attention are exquisitely tuned to the amount and behavioral relevancy of statistical information in the environment.
ISSN:0096-1523
1939-1277
DOI:10.1037/a0039429