輪郭線の欠如がオブジェクトベースの注意の拡散に与える影響

抄録

It has been suggested that visual attention spreads along an object's contour. We investigated the role of contour on attentional spreading. As an index of spreading, we applied the same-object effect, where observers respond faster to targets within cued objects than to those within uncued objects. The stimuli consisted of two rectangular objects, both of which were missing one long side. The task was to detect or compare the target(s) that appeared at the end of either a cued or uncued object. In all three experiments, the same-object effect was decreased when the cued object was missing the side facing the uncued object. Moreover, this tendency was more obvious when the uncued object was also missing the side facing the cued object. These results suggest that attention spreads from the opening of the cued object to the uncued object.