Abstract
Visual search for a target involves two processes: spatial selection and identity extraction. Ghorashi, Enns, and Di Lollo (2008) found these processes to be independent and surmised that they were carried out along distinct visual pathways: dorsal and ventral, respectively. The two experiments that are described in the present article evaluated this hypothesis. Attentional-blink methodology was combined with voluntary spatial cuing in a visual search task: Intertarget lag was used to manipulate identity extraction; predictive cues were used to signal target locations. Central digit cues in Experiment 1 required participants to identify digits before voluntarily directing attention to a corresponding location, whereas flashed dots in Experiment 2 (indicating an opposite location) required attentional redeployment without prior cue identification. Consistent with the dual-pathway hypothesis, cuing was impaired only when the first target and the number cue competed for ventral-pathway mechanisms. Collectively, the results support the dual-pathway account of the separability of spatial selection and identity extraction.
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This work was supported by a PGS-D grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to S.G. and by Discovery Grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to T.M.S., J.T.E., and V.D.L.
An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/APP.72.1.274.
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Ghorashi, S., Spalek, T.M., Enns, J.T. et al. Are spatial selection and identity extraction separable when attention is controlled endogenously?. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 71, 1233–1240 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/APP.71.6.1233
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/APP.71.6.1233