Flicker and the efficiency of cues for capturing attention

In this paper, we present new experimental results which speak of the topic of temporal properties of processes underlying the selection of spatial lo cation. We used the double motion induction paradigm to assess the strength of the selective effects. Prior exposure of an area to flicker, decreased the effectiveness of a cueing spot presented later at that location. This e ffect lasted for at least 1.5 s. In further experiments, it was found that both static and flickering cues, with time, lose their effectiveness to fac ilitate processing. While the static cueing decays quickly to very low effe ctiveness, flicker cueing decays to a level of effectiveness which can be m aintained for a long time. Thus with time two flickering cues presented wit h a temporal offset become equivalent to each other, but remain more effect ive than a static cue. We conclude that mechanisms coding temporal change d etermine cue effectiveness for capturing attention. Simple exponential deca y functions with different temporal constants and different lower asymptote s can describe these effects. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights res erved.