EFFECTS OF COGNITIVE FOVEAL LOAD ON A PERIPHERAL SINGLE-TARGET DETECTION TASK

This experiment investigated the effects of foveal cognitive load on a primary peripheral single-target detection task. Four levels of fovea l task with cognitive loads involving identification and summation of numerals were used. Number of correct targets detected seemed unaffect ed by the foveal load in the near periphery but a decrement occurred b eyond 7.7-degrees. Response times for correct responses showed large d ispersion compared with that for correct locations. At a low cognitive load, foveal task performance showed no deterioration for all eccentr icities tested, but at a higher cognitive load performance declined gr adually across eccentricities. Mild evidence of tunnel vision was obta ined as indicated by the significant interaction of cognitive loads x eccentricities. Resources theory accounted well for the results.