Objects and attributes in divided attention: surface and boundary systems

Percept Psychophys. 1996 Oct;58(7):1076-84. doi: 10.3758/bf03206834.

Abstract

A series of experiments investigated concurrent discriminations of surface and nonsurface attributes, including color, brightness, texture, length, location, and motion. In all cases but one, results matched those previously reported: Interference occurred when two discriminations concerned different objects, but not when they concerned the same one. In the two-object case, interference was the same whether discriminations were similar (e.g., two surface discriminations) or different (e.g., one surface, one boundary). Such results support a model of visual attention in which separate visual subsystems are coordinated, converging to work on surface and boundary properties of the same selected object. A partial exception is color: For reasons that are unclear, color escapes two-object interference except from other, concurrent surface discriminations.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Attention*
  • Color Perception
  • Contrast Sensitivity
  • Discrimination Learning*
  • Female
  • Field Dependence-Independence*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Motion Perception
  • Orientation*
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual*
  • Psychophysics
  • Size Perception