FIGURAL AFTEREFFECTS AND SPATIAL ATTENTION

Distracting attention away from the location of an adaptation figure r educes the positional shift of a displaced test figure in the figural aftereffect (FAE). Participants performed an alignment task after adap tation involving various manipulations of spatial attention. In 1 cond ition, participants counted how often numbers occurred in an alphanume ric sequence presented during adaptation. (The sequence also appeared in a comparison condition, but no attention was required.) The FAE was reduced when the alphanumeric sequence attended to was in the center of the display while the adaptation figure was 3 degrees eccentric but not when the pattern was superimposed on the adaptation figure. Force d attention to 1 feature of the adaptation figure, its orientation, di d not reduce the FAE (Experiment 3). To obtain a maximum FAE, the span of attention must cover the adaptation figure.