Temporal characteristics of feature integration and visual attention

Abstract

Temporal property of feature integration and visual attention has been examined through Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) tasks. Subjects were asked to detect targets defined as a specific feature, e.g., color. Most errors were conjunction of target-defining feature in a target and to-be-reported feature in immediately preceding and following a target. This is referred to as a temporal illusory conjunction. The different patterns of temporal illusory conjunction yielded in different tasks and stimuli were explained by early- or late-selection theory of attention.
The temporal suppression of visual attention was found in dual-task RSVP. When the target was correctly detected, the probability of detection of the probe presented shortly after the target was reduced. This attentional blink shows that identifying an object occupies attention for at least several hundred milliseconds.