Abstract
Endogenous temporal-orienting effects were studied using a cuing paradigm in which the cue indicated the time interval during which the target was most likely to appear. Temporal-orienting effects were defined by lower reaction times (RTs) when there was a match between the temporal expectancy for a target (early or late) and the time interval during which the target actually appeared than when they mismatched. Temporal-orienting effects were found for both early and late expectancies with a detection task in Experiment 1. However, catch trials were decisive in whether temporal-orienting effects were observed in the early-expectancy condition. No temporal-orienting effects were found in the discrimination task. In Experiments 2A and 2B, temporal-orienting effects were observed in the discrimination task; however, they were larger when temporal expectancy was manipulated between blocks, rather than within blocks.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alegria, J. (1975). Sequential effects of foreperiod duration: Some strategical factors in tasks involving time uncertainty. In P. M. A. Rabbitt& S. Dornic (Eds.),Attention and performance V (pp. 1–11). London: Academic Press.
Bertelson, P. (1967). The time course of preparation.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,19, 272–279.
Brown, S.W. (1985). Time perception and attention: The effects of prospective versus retrospective paradigms and task demands on perceived duration.Perception & Psychophysics,38, 115–124.
Chen, C., &O’Neill, P. (2001). Processing demand modulates the effects of spatial attention on the judged duration of a brief stimulus.Perception & Psychophysics,63, 1229–1238.
Coull, J. T., Frith, C. D., Büchel, C., &Nobre, A. C. (2000). Orienting attention in time: Behavioural and neuroanatomical distinction between exogenous and endogenous shifts.Neuropsychologia,38, 808–819.
Coull, J. T., &Nobre, A. C. (1998). Where and when to pay attention: The neural systems for directing attention to spatial locations and to time intervals as revealed by both PET and fMRI.Journal of Neuroscience,18, 7426–7435.
Coull, J. T., Nobre, A. C., &Frith, C. D. (2001). The noradrenergic alpha2 agonist clonidine modulates behavioural and neuroanatomical correlates of human attentional orienting and alerting.Cerebral Cortex,11, 73–84.
Garner, W. R. (1987). Location and color as cuing dimensions in contingent classification.Perception & Psychophysics,41, 202–210.
Griffin, I. C., Miniussi, C., &Nobre, A. C. (2001). Orienting attention in time.Frontiers in Bioscience,6, 660–671.
Karlin, L. (1959). Reaction time as a function of foreperiod duration and variability.Journal of Experimental Psychology,58, 185–191.
Kingstone, A. (1992). Combining expectancies.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,44A, 69–104.
Kubovy, M. (1981). Concurrent-pitch segregation and the theory of indispensable attributes. In M. Kubovy & J. R. Pomerantz (Eds.),Perceptual organization (pp. 55–98). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
LaBerge, D. (1995).Attentional processing: The brain’s art of mindfulness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Los, S. A., &Van den Heuvel, C. E. (2001). Intentional and unintentional contributions to nonspecific preparation during reaction time foreperiods.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,27, 370–386.
Loveless, N. E., &Sanford, A. J. (1974). Effects of age on the contingent negative variation and preparatory set in a reaction-time task.Journal of Gerontology,29, 52–63.
McAuley, J. D., &Kidd, G. R. (1998). Effect of deviations from temporal expectations on tempo discrimination of isochronous tone sequences.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,24, 1786–1800.
Milliken, B., & Lupiáñez, J. (2000, March).Strategic influences on inhibition of return: The effect of SOA proportion manipulations in discrimination and detection tasks. Paper presented at the III Congreso de la Sociedad Española de Psicología Experimental, Barcelona.
Milliken, B., Lupiáñez, J., Roberts, M., &Stevanovski, B. (2003). Orienting in space and time: Joint contributions to exogenous spatial cuing effects.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,10, 877–883.
Miniussi, C., Wilding, E. L., Coull, J. T., &Nobre, A. C. (1999). Orienting attention in time: Modulation of brain potentials.Brain,122, 1507–1518.
Niemi, P., &Näätä nen, R. (1981). Foreperiod and simple reaction time.Psychological Bulletin,89, 133–162.
Posner, M. I. (1978).Chronometric explorations of mind. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Posner, M.I., Nissen, M.J., &Ogden, W.C. (1978). Attended and unattended processing modes: The role of set for spatial location. In H. L. Pick & I. J. Saltzman (Eds.),Models of perceiving and information processing (pp. 137–157). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Posner, M. I., &Raichle, M. E. (1994).Images of mind. New York: Scientific American Library.
Posner, M. I., Snyder, C. R. R., &Davidson, B. J. (1980). Attention and the detection of signals.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,109, 160–174.
Schneider, W. (1988). Micro Experimental Laboratory: An integrated system for IBM PC compatibles.Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers,20, 206–271.
Shulman, G. L., Sheehy, J. B., &Wilson, J. (1986). Gradients of spatial attention.Acta Psychologica,61, 167–181.
Woodrow, H. (1914). The measurement of attention.Psychological Monographs,17, 1–158.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Additional information
This research was financially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Cultura with Predoctoral Grant FPU-AP2000-3167 to the first author and Research Grants MCyT, BSO2000-1503 to J.L. and MCyT, BSO2000-1411-C02 to P.T.
Note—This article was accepted by the previous editorial team, headed by Neil Macmillan.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Correa, Á., Lupiáñez, J., Milliken, B. et al. Endogenous temporal orienting of attention in detection and discrimination tasks. Perception & Psychophysics 66, 264–278 (2004). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194878
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194878