What's new in visual masking?

A brief display that is dearly visible when shown alone can be rendered inv isible by the subsequent: presentation of a second visual stimulus. Several recently described backward masking effects are not predicted by current t heories of visual masking, including masking by four small dots that surrou nd (but do not touch) a target object and masking by a surrounding object t hat remains on display after the target object has been turned off. A cruci al factor in both of these effects is attention: almost no masking occurs i f attention can be rapidly focused on the target whereas powerful masking e nsues if attention directed at the target is delayed. A new theory of visua l masking inspired by developments in neuroscience, can account for these e ffects, as well as more traditional masking effects. In addition, the new t heory sheds light on related research, such as the attentional blink, inatt entional blindness and change blindness.