Citation

Doran MM, Hoffman JE. Atten. Percept. Psychophys. 2010; 72(1): 33-52.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology University of Delaware Newark, Delaware 19716, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.3758/APP.72.1.33

PMID

20802834

PMCID

PMC2927139

Abstract

We examined the role of visual attention in the multiple object tracking (MOT) task by measuring the amplitude of the N1 component of the event-related potential (ERP) to probe flashes presented on targets, distractors, or empty background areas. We found evidence that visual attention enhances targets and suppresses distractors (Experiment 1 & 3). However, we also found that when tracking load was light (two targets and two distractors), accurate tracking could be carried out without any apparent contribution from the visual attention system (Experiment 2). Our results suggest that attentional selection during MOT is flexibly determined by task demands as well as tracking load and that visual attention may not always be necessary for accurate tracking.

Language: en