Objects and attributes in divided attention: Surface and boundary systems

Duncan, John S.; Ian Nimmo‐Smith · 1996 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.3758/bf03206834

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Summary

This study investigates the mechanisms of visual attention, specifically testing whether surface attributes (e.g., color, brightness, texture) and boundary attributes (e.g., length, location, motion) are processed by independent visual subsystems. The research addresses a debate in cognitive psychology regarding object-based attention models, which posit that attention is allocated to objects rather than specific attributes. If surface and boundary systems were functionally independent, concurrent discriminations of different attribute types on different objects should show reduced interference compared to discriminations of the same attribute type. The authors conducted a series of experiments using brief visual displays where subjects performed concurrent two-alternative forced-choice discriminations. Experiment 1 examined color (surface) and length (boundary) using line stimuli. Subsequent replications and Experiment 2 expanded the attribute set to include brightness, texture, and location, using various stimuli such as boxes, letters, and checkerboard patches. The experimental design compared performance in single-discrimination conditions against dual-discrimination conditions, manipulating whether the two discriminations concerned the same object or different objects, and whether the attributes were similar (e.g., two surface attributes) or different (e.g., one surface, one boundary). Interference was measured by the decrement in accuracy when attention was divided. The results largely supported the object-based model of attention but revealed a specific exception regarding color. For boundary attributes like length and location, interference occurred whenever discriminations concerned different objects, regardless of whether the attributes were similar or different. Similarly, for other surface attributes like brightness and texture, interference was consistent across same- and different-attribute conditions when objects differed. However, color discriminations showed reduced interference when paired with boundary discriminations on different objects, behaving as if processed by an independent system. Crucially, this independence did not hold when color was paired with other surface attributes (brightness or texture), where significant interference was observed. Furthermore, when concurrent discriminations concerned the same object, interference disappeared for all attribute combinations, confirming that attention converges on a single selected object. These findings indicate that visual attention is primarily organized around objects rather than independent attribute-specific subsystems. The general rule is that dividing attention between different objects incurs a cost, irrespective of the attribute types involved. The unique behavior of color—escaping interference from boundary attributes but not from other surface attributes—suggests a partial independence for color processing, though the underlying reasons remain unclear. The study concludes that separate visual subsystems for surface and boundary properties are coordinated to work on the same selected object, challenging models that propose fully parallel, independent processing streams for these attributes during divided attention.

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Topics

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• attention selective divided
• inattentional change blindness