Object-based Attention : Effects of Cue Informativeness and Spatial Focus

• Main Authors: Chi-Ming Hu, 胡志銘
• Other Authors: 葉素玲
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/88218258333399722062

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 心理學研究所 === 92 === The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of cue informativeness and spatial focus on object-based attention. The double-rectangle spatial-cueing paradigm of Egly, Rafal, and Driver（1994） was used and the same object effect （SOE, faster RT when the cue and the target are in the same object than when they belong to different objects） was taken as an index of object-based attention. 林山源（2003）found that cue informativeness is necessary for SOE. However, Goldsmith and Yeari （2003） obtained SOE only when the objects were covered by the spatial focus of attention. We used informative cue and made the participants’ attention focus on the center without covering the objects to resolve the discrepancy between the two studies. In experiment 1, SOE was still observed with an informative peripheral cue and with attention focused on fixation. In Experiment 2 a central cue was used to make attention more focused, and two different cue-to-target SOAs （stimulus onset asynchrony） were manipulated. SOE was found only in the long SOA condition. Experiment 3 used the same peripheral cue as in experiment 1 but two SOAs were manipulated as in Experiment 2. The interaction between SOE and SOA was again observed. The SOEs found under focal attention in Experiments 1-3 indicate that the objects being covered by the initial focus of attention is not the premise for object-based selection; the cue informative-ness is the critical factor. The interactions between SOE and SOA observed in Experiments 2 and 3 support the view that attention spreads within the contour of the object.