Abstract
In many dual-task experiments, the priority observers give to each task is experimentally varied. Most experiments using this methodology have studied the effect of dividing attention between spatially distinct objects. We examined performance when attention had to be divided between stimulus attributes other than spatial location. In the first experiment, observers identified the color and the shape of a single letter. Accuracy was the same for single- and dual-task conditions, and a trialby-trial analysis revealed a strong positive correlation in the correct identification of the color and the shape. In the second experiment, color and shape judgments were separated in space, with opposite results: Dual-task performance was worse than single-task performance, and the trial-by-trial analysis indicated a strong negative correlation between tasks. The results indicated that often only one dimension was processed within a trial. The results support object and space models of attention.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allport, D. A. (1971). Parallel encoding within and between stimulus dimensions.Perception & Psychophysics,10, 104–108.
Banks, W. P., &Prinzmetal, W. (1976). Configurational effects in visual information processing.Perception & Psychophysics,19, 361–367.
Baron, J. (1973). Perceptual dependence: Evidence for an internal threshold.Perception & Psychophysics,13, 527–533.
Bonnel, A.-M., & Hafter, E. R. (in press). Divided attention between simultaneous auditory and visual signals.Perception & Psychophysics.
Bonnel, A.-M., &Miller, J. (1994). Attentional effects on concurrent psychophysical discriminations: Investigations of a sample-size model.Perception & Psychophysics,55, 162–179.
Bonnel, A.-M., Possamaï, C., &Schmitt, M. (1987). Early modulation of visual input: A study of attentional strategies.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,39A, 757–776.
Bonnel, A.-M., Stein, J. F., &Bertucci, P. (1992). Does attention modulate the perception of luminance changes? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,44A, 601–626.
Broadbent, D. E. (1958).Perception and communication. London: Pergamon.
Broadbent, D. E. (1982). Task combination and selective intake of information.Acta Psychologica,50, 253–290.
Castiello, U., &Umiltà, C. (1990). Size of the attentional focus and efficiency of processing.Acta Psychologica,73, 195–209.
Castiello, U., &Umiltà, C. (1992). Splitting focal attention.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,18, 837–848.
Cave, K. R., &Wolfe, J. M. (1990). Modeling the role of parallel processing in visual search.Cognitive Psychology,22, 225–271.
Cowey, A. (1985). Aspects of cortical organization related to selective attention and selective impairments of visual perception. A tutorial review. In M. I. Posner & O. S. M. Marin (Eds.),Attention and performance XI (pp. 41–62). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Downing, C., &Pinker, S. (1987). The spatial structure of attention. In M. Coltheart (Ed.),Attention and performance XII (pp. 171–187). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Duncan, J. (1984). Selective attention and the organization of visual information.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,113, 501–517.
Duncan, J. (1993). Similarity between concurrent visual discriminations: Dimensions and objects.Perception & Psychophysics,54, 425–430.
Duncan, J., &Nimmo-Smith, I. (1996). Objects and attributes in divided attention: Surface and boundary systems.Perception & Psychophysics,58, 1076–1084.
Egly, R., Driver, J., &Rafal, R. D. (1994). Shifting visual attention between objects and locations: Evidence from normal and parietal lesion subjects.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,123, 161–177.
Egly, R., &Homa, D. (1984). Sensitization of the visual field.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,10, 778–793.
Eriksen, C. W., &Hoffman, J. E. (1973). The extent of processing of noise elements during selective encoding from visual displays.Perception & Psychophysics,154, 155–160.
Garner, W. R. (1974).The processing of information and structure. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Garner, W. R., &Morton, J. (1969). Perceptual independence: Definitions, models, and experimental paradigms.Psychological Bulletin,72, 233–259.
Green, D. M., &Swets, J. A. (1974).Signal detection and psychophysics. New York: Wiley. (Original work published 1966)
Hays, W. L. (1981).Statistics (3rd ed.). London: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Henderson, J. M., &Macquistan, A. D. (1993). The spatial distribution of attention following an exogenous cue.Perception & Psychophysics,53, 221–230.
Hintzman, D. L. (1992). Mathematical constraints and the “Tulving-Wiseman Law.”Psychological Review,99, 536–542.
Hoffman, J. E., Houck, M. R., Macmillan, F. W., Simons, R. F., &Oatman, L. C. (1985). Event-related potentials elicited by automatic targets: A dual-task analysis.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,11, 50–61.
Hoffman, J. E., &Nelson, B. (1981). Spatial selectivity in visual search.Perception & Psychophysics,30, 283–290.
Hoffman, J. E., Nelson, B., &Houck, M. R. (1983). The role of attentional resources in automatic detection.Cognitive Psychology,15, 379–410.
Hughes, H. C. (1984). Effects of flash luminance and positional expectancies on visual response latency.Perception & Psychophysics,36, 177–184.
Hughes, H. C., &Zimba, L. D. (1985). Spatial maps of directed visual attention.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,11, 409–430.
Isenberg, L., Nissen, M. J., &Marchak, L. C. (1990). Attentional processing and the independence of color and orientation.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,6, 869–878.
Kahneman, D. (1973).Attention and effort. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Kahneman, D., &Henik, A. (1977). Effect of visual grouping on immediate recall and selective attention. In S. Domic (Ed.),Attention and performance VII (pp. 181–211). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Kantowitz, B. H., Elvers, G. C, & Palmer, J. (1991, November).Using attention operating characteristics to calibrate inferences about performance operating characteristics. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, San Francisco.
Kinchla, R. A. (1969).An attention operating characteristic in vision (Tech. Rep. No. 29). Hamilton, ON: McMaster University, Department of Psychology.
Kinchla, R. A. (1980). The measurement of attention. In R. S Nickerson (Ed.),Attention & performance VIII (pp. 213–218). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Kramer, A. F., Weber, T. A., &Watson, S. E. (1997). Object-based attentional selection—Grouped-arrays or spatially invariant representations? Comment on Vecera and Farrah (1994).Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,126, 3–13.
Kramer, A. F., Wickens, C. D., &Donchin, E. (1985). Processing of stimulus properties: Evidence for dual-task integrality.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,11, 393–408.
Lavie, N., &Driver, J. (1996). On the spatial extent of attention in object-based visual selection.Perception & Psychophysics,58, 1238–1251.
Marascuilo, L. A. (1971).Statistical methods for behavioral science research. New York: McGraw-Hill.
McCormick, P. A., &Klein, R. (1990). The spatial distribution of attention during covert visual orienting.Acta Psychologica,75, 225–242.
Miller, J., &Bonnel, A. M. (1994). Switching or sharing in dualtask line-length discrimination?Perception & Psychophysics,56, 431–446.
Monheit, M. A., &Johnston, J. C. (1994). Spatial attention to arrays of multidimensional objects.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,20, 691–708.
Müller, H. J., &Findlay, J. M. (1987). Sensitivity and criterion effects in the spatial cuing of visual attention.Perception & Psychophysics,42, 383–399.
Navon, D., &Gopher, D. (1979). On the economy of the human processing system.Psychological Review,86, 214–255.
Nissen, M. J. (1985). Accessing features and objects: Is location special? In M. I. Posner & O. S. M. Marin (Eds.),Attention and performance XI (pp. 205–219). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Norman, D. A., &Bobrow, D. G. (1975). On data-limited and resource-limited processes.Cognitive Psychology,7, 44–64.
Posner, M., Snyder, C. R. R., &Davidson, B. J. (1980). Attention and the detection of signals.Journal of Experimental Psvchology: General,109, 160–174.
Prinzmetal, W. (1981). Principles of feature integration in visual perception.Perception & Psychophysics,30, 330–340.
Prinzmetal, W., &Banks, W. P. (1977). Good continuation affects visual detection.Perception & Psychophysics,21, 389–395.
Prinzmetal, W., &Millis-Wright, M. (1984). Cognitive and linguistic factors affect visual feature integration.Cognitive Psychology,16, 305–340.
Pylyshyn, Z. W., &Storm, R. W. (1988). Tracking multiple independent targets: Evidence for a parallel tracking mechanism.Spatial Vision,3, 179–197.
Shaw, M. L. (1982). Attending to multiple sources of information: I. The integration of information in decision making.Cognitive Psychology,14, 353–409.
Shepard, R. N. (1964). Attention and the metric structure of the stimulus space.Journal of Mathematical Psychology,1, 54–87.
Sperling, G. (1984). A unified theory of attention and signal detection. In R. Parasuraman & D. R. Davies (Eds.),Varieties of attention (pp. 103–181). New York: Academic Press.
Sperling, G., &Melchner, M. (1978a). The attention operating characteristic: Examples from visual search.Science,202, 315–318.
Sperling, G., &Melchner, M. (1978b). Visual search, visual attention, and the attention operating characteristic. In J. Requin (Ed.),Attention and performance Vll (pp. 675–686). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Taylor, M. M., Lindsay, P. H., &Forbes, S. M. (1967). Quantification of shared capacity processing in auditory and visual discrimination.Acta Psychologica,27, 223–229.
Treisman, A. M. (1969). Strategies and models of selective attention.Psychological Review,76, 282–299.
Treisman, A. M. (1985). Preattentive processing in vision.Computer Vision, Graphics, & Image Processing,31, 156–177.
Treisman, A. M., &Gelade, G. (1980). A feature-integration theory of attention.Cognitive Psychology,12, 97–136.
Treisman, A. M., Kahneman, D., &Burkell, J. (1983). Perceptual objects and the cost of filtering.Perception & Psychophvsics,33, 527–532.
Ullman, S. (1984). Visual routines.Cognition,18, 97–159.
Vecera, S. P., &Farah, M. J. (1994). Does visual attention select objects or locations?Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,123, 146–160.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was supported by NIDCD Grant 07787 to Ervin Hafter and NSF Grant SBR-9319103 to W. Prinzmetal.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bonnel, AM., Prinzmetal, W. Dividing attention between the color and the shape of objects. Perception & Psychophysics 60, 113–124 (1998). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211922
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211922