Focused attention in the perception and retrieval of multidimensional stimuli
DOI: 10.3758/bf03206074
URL: https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03206074
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
Summary
Extends Treisman, Sykes, & Gelade's earlier successive-matching work to test a progressive-focusing model of feature integration with multidimensional stimuli. Across experiments using both colored shapes and schematic faces with varied targets and temporal (rather than spatial) separation, the prior conjunction-matching findings replicated, supporting the generality of the model. Treisman models the matching process as discrete stages in which the subject narrows focal attention first to one display stimulus and then, if necessary, to a single stored target; quantitative simulations using single-attribute matching latencies predicted conjunction-matching latencies and accounted for ~98.8% of trial-type variance. Results support the view that focal serial attention is required to bind separable features into the correct conjunctions corresponding to actual objects.
Key finding
Focal attention narrows progressively in two discrete stages and is required to bind separable features into correct conjunctions, with a single quantitative model fitting both colored-shape and schematic-face matching data.
Methodology
Exp 1: 10 participants, repeated measures across 6 sessions from 26 total. Exp 2: 20 participants, Old/New sequence comparison. On-road driving paradigm with DRT and NASA-TLX measures.
Sample size: Exp 1: N=10; Exp 2: N=20
Quality score: 5 / 5