An attentional blink for sequentially presented targets: evidence in favor of resource depletion accounts

Abstract

Several accounts of the attentional blink (AB) have postulated that this dual-target deficit occurs because of limited-capacity attentional resources being devoted to processing the first target at the expense of the second (resource depletion accounts; e.g., Chun & Potter, 1995). Recent accounts have challenged this model (e.g., Di Lollo, Kawahara, Ghorashi, & Enns, 2005; Olivers, van der Stigchel, & Hulleman, 2007), proposing instead that the AB occurs because of subjects' inability to maintain appropriate levels of attentional controlwhen targets are separated by distractors. Accordingly, the AB is eliminated when three targets from the same attentional set are presented sequentially in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream. However, under such conditions poorer identification of the first target is typically observed, hinting at a potential trade-off between the first and subsequent target performances. Consistent with this hypothesis, the present study shows that an AB is observed for successive targets from the same attentional set in an RSVP stream when the first target powerfully captures attention. These results suggest that resource depletion contributes significantly to the AB.

Figure 1

Example RSVP streams for Experiments 1 and 2.

Figure 2

Mean T1, T2, and T3 accuracy in Experiment 1 as a function of Trial Type (Uniform vs. Varied), plotted separately for the White Target Group and the Red Target Group.

Figure 3

Mean T1, T2, and T3 accuracy in Experiment 2 as a function of T1–T3 Lag (Short Lag vs. Long Lag).