TY - JOUR
T1 - Organizational and spatial dynamics of attentional focusing in hierarchically structured objects
AU - Yeari, Menahem
AU - Goldsmith, Morris
PY - 2011/6
Y1 - 2011/6
N2 - Is the focusing of visual attention object-based, space-based, both, or neither? Attentional focusing latencies in hierarchically structured compound-letter objects were examined, orthogonally manipulating global size (larger vs. smaller) and organizational complexity (two-level structure vs. three-level structure). In a dynamic focusing task, participants successively identified the global and local letters in the same trial. Overall response latencies were generally longer for larger versus smaller global objects and for three-level versus two-level object structure, indicating that attentional focusing time increases both with the magnitude of change in attentional aperture size and with the number of traversed levels of object structure. Additional experiments showed that this pattern is unique to tasks that require dynamic attentional focusing. Taken together, the results support a hierarchical object-based-spatial model of attentional focusing.
AB - Is the focusing of visual attention object-based, space-based, both, or neither? Attentional focusing latencies in hierarchically structured compound-letter objects were examined, orthogonally manipulating global size (larger vs. smaller) and organizational complexity (two-level structure vs. three-level structure). In a dynamic focusing task, participants successively identified the global and local letters in the same trial. Overall response latencies were generally longer for larger versus smaller global objects and for three-level versus two-level object structure, indicating that attentional focusing time increases both with the magnitude of change in attentional aperture size and with the number of traversed levels of object structure. Additional experiments showed that this pattern is unique to tasks that require dynamic attentional focusing. Taken together, the results support a hierarchical object-based-spatial model of attentional focusing.
KW - Focusing
KW - Global-local
KW - Hierarchical organization
KW - Object-based vs. space-based
KW - Visual attention
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79958699588&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/a0020746
DO - 10.1037/a0020746
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C2 - 21443386
AN - SCOPUS:79958699588
SN - 0096-1523
VL - 37
SP - 758
EP - 780
JO - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance
JF - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance
IS - 3
ER -