Cued visual attention does not distinguish between occluded and occluding objects

Does visual attention spread from the cued end of an occluded object to loc ations occupied by inferred portions of that object? We investigated this q uestion by using a probe detection paradigm with two-dimensional (2-D) disp lays of occluded objects. Probes could appear in occluded or nonoccluded lo cations on either a cued or noncued object. Participants responded faster t o probes appearing within the region of space occupied by the cued object. This was true not only when the probe appeared in positions separated from the cued location by an occluder (as demonstrated by Moore, Yantis, & Vaugh an, 1998), but also when it appeared in positions on the occluder itself. T hus, results suggest that cued facilitation spreads to regions of noncued o ccluding objects that overlap cued occluded objects in 2-D space.