The channel capacity of visual awareness divided among multiple moving objects

If attention is distributed among multiple moving objects, how does this divided attention affect the temporal process for detecting a specific target motion? Well-trained observers in three experiments monitored ongoing random motions of multiple objects, trying to rapidly detect non-random target...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Attention, perception & psychophysics perception & psychophysics, 2016-11, Vol.78 (8), p.2469-2493
Main Authors: Lappin, Joseph S., Morse, Douglas L., Seiffert, Adriane E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Attention
Attention - physiology
Awareness - physiology
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Experiments
Humans
Hypotheses
Motion
Motion Perception - physiology
Observation
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Perceptions
Predictor Variables
Principals
Psychology
Reaction Time
Reaction Time - physiology
Studies
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Summary:If attention is distributed among multiple moving objects, how does this divided attention affect the temporal process for detecting a specific target motion? Well-trained observers in three experiments monitored ongoing random motions of multiple objects, trying to rapidly detect non-random target motions. Response time hazard rates revealed a simple lawful structure of the detection processes. Target detection rates (hazard rates, in bits / s ) were inversely proportional to the number of observed objects. Detection rates at any response time and in any condition equaled a product of two parallel (functionally independent and concurrent) visual processes: visual awareness and motion integration . The rate of visual awareness was inversely proportional to Set Size ( n = 1–12), constant over time, and invariant with integrated motion information. Thus, a single rate parameter, indicating a constant channel capacity of visual awareness, described detection rates over a wide range of conditions and response times. During an initial interval of roughly 0.5 s, detection rates increased proportionally with the duration and length of motion; but after this initial integration, detection rates were constant, independent of the time the target remained undetected. The relationship between the quantity of visual information and detection rates was simpler than anticipated by contemporary theories of attention, perception, and performance.
ISSN:1943-3921
1943-393X
DOI:10.3758/s13414-016-1162-z