Evidence for distinct attentional bottlenecks in attention switching and attentional blink tasks

E. Weichselgartner and G. A. Sperling (1987), using rapid serial visual pre sentation (RSVP), estimated that attention could be moved to a new spatial location within 300-400 ms. H. J. Muller and P. M. Rabbit (1989) used a spa tial cuing task and found a similar time course for voluntarily redeploying attention. A separate phenomenon known as the attentional blink (AB) also follows a similar time course, yet occurs when participants attend to a sin gle spatial location. The present study found that attention can be shifted more quickly than previously estimated and that part of the deficit observ ed during searches of spatially distinct RSVP streams is due to an AB. The results support some early and late selection accounts for the temporal dyn amics of visual attention and suggest different bottlenecks during visual s election. The implications for visual search and visual processing are disc ussed.