Divided attention between simultaneous auditory and visual signals

Author(s): Hafter, E. R.

Journal/Book: Percept Psychophys. 1998; 60: 1710 Fortview Rd, Austin, TX 78704. Psychonomic Soc Inc. 179-190.

Abstract: Past studies of simultaneous attention to pairs of visual stimuli have used the ''dual-task'' paradigm to show that identification of the direction of a change in luminance, whether incremental or decremental, is ''capacity-limited,'' while simple detection of these changes is governed by ''capacity-free'' processes. On the basis of that finding, it has been suggested that the contrast between identification and detection reflects different processes in the sensory periphery, namely the responses of magno- and parvocellular receptors. The present study questions that assertion and investigates the contribution of central processing in resource Limitation by applying the dual task to a situation in which one stimulus is auditory and one is visual. The results are much the same as before, with identification demonstrating the tradeoff in performance generally attributed to a limited capacity but detection showing no loss compared with single-task controls. This implies that limitations on resources operate at a central level of processing rather than in the auditory and visual peripheries.

Note: Article Bonnel AM, Univ Calif Berkeley, Dept Psychol, 3210 Tolman Hall, Berkeley,CA 94720 USA

Keyword(s): SEARCH; INTERFERENCE; SENSITIVITY; PERCEPTION; CAPACITY

Zurück | Weiter