Td. Grandison et al., BEYOND SIMILARITY - MASKING OF THE TARGET IS SUFFICIENT TO CAUSE THE ATTENTIONAL BLINK, Perception & psychophysics, 59(2), 1997, pp. 266-274
When subjects are asked to identify a letter target embedded in a rapi
d serial visual presentation stream, the detection of a subsequent let
ter probe is briefly impaired. This transient deficit in probe detecti
on, termed the ''attentional blink,'' depends on the type of item that
immediately follows the letter target (Raymond, Shapiro, & Arnell, 19
95). Two models have been proposed to account for this effect. The int
erference model of the attentional blink predicts that visual similari
ty between the probe and item immediately following the target (+1 ite
m) causes the attentional blink, whereas the two-stage model is based
on the notion that increased time needed to process the target letter
causes the attentional blink. In order to test between these two possi
bilities, the masking properties of the +1 item and its similarity to
the probe were varied. We found the attentional blink when the +1 item
acted as a mask of the target, even though the +1 item and the probe
were visually dissimilar. This pattern of results supports the two-sta
ge model of the attentional blink.