Effects of phonological length on the attentional blink for words

The authors tested whether the attentional blink (AB), a deficit in the abi lity to report a second target appearing within half a second of a first ta rget, may reflect limitations for consolidating visual stimuli into working memory and awareness. Previous research has shown that people are severely limited in the rate that they can identify and report visual events presen ted in rapid succession. Word length was examined, a variable known to affe ct verbal working memory. Experiment 1 showed that the AB was modulated by the phonological length of the first target. Phonologically longer pseudowo rds triggered larger blink deficits. Experiment 2 also demonstrated the wor d-length effect on the AB using real-world stimuli, anagrams, that controll ed for low-level visual differences between conditions. These data support proposals that the AB reflects a difficulty in consolidating information in to working memory.