Document Detail


Unexpected changes in direction of motion attract attention.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  21097853     Owner:  NLM     Status:  In-Process    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Under some circumstances, moving objects capture attention. Whether a change in the direction of a moving object attracts attention is still unexplored. We investigated this using a continuous tracking task. In Experiment 1, four grating patches changed smoothly and semirandomly in their positions and orientations, and observers attempted to track the orientations of two of them. After the stimuli disappeared, one of the two target gratings was queried and observers reported its orientation; hence direction of the gratings' motion across the screen was an irrelevant feature. Despite the irrelevance of its motion, when the nonqueried grating had collided with an invisible boundary within the last 200 msec of the trial, accuracy reporting the queried grating was worse than when it had not. Attention was likely drawn by the unexpected nature of these changes in direction of motion, since the effect was eliminated when the boundaries were visible (Experiment 2). This tendency for unexpected motion changes to attract attention has important consequences for the monitoring of objects in everyday environments.
Authors:
Christina J Howard; Alex O Holcombe
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Attention, perception, & psychophysics     Volume:  72     ISSN:  1943-393X     ISO Abbreviation:  Atten Percept Psychophys     Publication Date:  2010 Nov 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-11-24     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  101495384     Medline TA:  Atten Percept Psychophys     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  2087-95     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. cjhoward@sydney.edu.au
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