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Endogenous orienting is reduced during the attentional blink

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Abstract

We studied endogenous cuing during the attentional blink in order to examine its resistance to dual task interference. In two experiments, we found a reduced impact of endogenous cuing during the “blink” time of the attentional blink. In a third experiment endogenous cuing was intact when it was not influenced by demands imposed by an earlier target. Contrary to a recent report (Zhang et al. in Exp Brain Res, 185, 287–295, 2008), the results indicate that endogenous orienting guided by semantic cues is susceptible to the attentional blink.

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Notes

  1. The endogenous cue (the word left or right) in Experiment 2 was presented at the beginning of each trial, far in advance of T1 and T2. As an anonymous reviewer suggested, in theory, participants could move their attention to the cued location in the periphery prior to presentation of T1. Thus the disruption caused by the AB at short lags might have been due to processes other than those involved in moving attention. However, if subjects had moved their attention to the cued location in the periphery early in the trial, then we would also expect to have observed very low accuracy in T1 identification. Contrary to that prediction, T1 accuracy was quite high (92%), consistent with our belief that the AB interfered with the movement of attention after T1 was presented.

  2. Although endogenous orienting was suppressed for 200 ms in both Experiments 1 and 2, we think the duration of the suppression might depend on the difficulty of T1 discrimination. In an earlier study on exogenous orienting we found that suppression caused by the processing of T1 extended longer when the T1 task was more demanding (Du and Abrams 2009). Further studies on the time course of suppression of endogenous orienting are needed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA

    Feng Du & Richard A. Abrams

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  1. Feng Du
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  2. Richard A. Abrams
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Correspondence to Feng Du.

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Du, F., Abrams, R.A. Endogenous orienting is reduced during the attentional blink. Exp Brain Res 205, 115–121 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2345-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2345-9

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