21st Annual Student Research Conference
Explaining the Attentional Blink, Part II: More than One Culprit is to Blame
Mallory C. Stites*, Jayne C. Fields, Rachel R. Horsch, Elizabeth A. Necka, and Christina Phan
Dr. Robert Tigner, Faculty Mentor
The Attentional Blink (AB) refers to our inability to identify a second target if it appears within .5 sec of an initial target. This study explores in greater depth some of the manipulations described in the previous presentation. An additional set of experiments manipulated type of target (letters or digits), type of distractors (digits or letters), type of task (same or different), and memory load (small or large) in order to determine how each affects the shape and magnitude of the AB. Results show that each of these factors alters the AB pattern in a different way, suggesting that the phenomenon currently labeled the AB may in fact be multiple phenomena. These results have implications for both attention and working memory.
Keywords: Attentional Blink, Working Memory, Attention, RSVP Task
Topic(s):Psychology
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 12-4
Location: VH 1232
Time: 9:00