The attention cascade model and attentional blink

Abstract

An attention cascade model is proposed to account for attentional blinks in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of stimuli. Data were collected using single characters in a single RSVP stream at 10Hz [Shih, S., & Reeves, A. (2007). Attentional capture in rapid serial visual presentation. Spatial Vision, 20(4), 301-315], and single words, in both single and dual RSVP streams at 19Hz [Potter, M. C., Staub, A., & O'Connor, D. H. (2002). The time course of competition for attention: Attention is initially labile. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 28(5), 1149-1162]. The model adopts similar architecture of the cognitive accounts of attentional blinks and employs computational details from theories of attention gating. The model has elaborated working memory and attention control mechanism. Both bottom-up and top-down salience are explicit in the model. Quantitative fits are good and the model parameters have plausible values. The model handles stimulus competition, lag 1 sparing, intrusion errors, and magnitude of the dip; it also accounts for commonly observed effects such as stimulus similarities (local and global), target+1 blank, and stimulus salience.