Task-irrelevant visual motion and flicker attenuate the attentional blink

Abstract

Our reduced ability to correctly report two sequentially presented targets is seen in the robust effect known as the attentional blink (AB; Raymond, Shapiro, and Arnell, 1992). One recent report (Olivers and Nieuwenhuis, 2005) strikingly reveals the AB to be virtually abolished when non-task-demanding music occurs in the background. The authors suggest that a diffuse attentional state is the mediating factor. Here, we seek to broaden the finding's generality by determining if task-irrelevant visual motion and flicker also attenuate the AB. In our experiments, the AB task was presented together with a background field of moving dots that could move away from or toward the central AB task, or flicker. In the control condition, the dots remained static. The AB was attenuated--though to different degrees--in all experimental conditions, but not in the static condition. Our findings add to the generality of the previous conclusions, and we emphasize an account based on the overallocation of attention.