Sensory and Attentional Components of Reaction Time:
Effects of the Size, Eccentricity and Predictability of Visual Stimuli
Keywords:
Visual attention, Eccentricity, Size, Reaction Time, PerceptionAbstract
Visual perception depends on the sensory framework and on attentional processing. This study examined the effects of the size, eccentricity and predictability of a visual stimulus on manual reaction time (RT). In experiment 1 (n=8), a target was presented randomly in one of four different eccentricities, with three possible sizes. Experiment 2 (n=12) had a similar configuration but a cue indicated the higher predictability (70%) of target presentation quadrant. The results showed an increase in RT as a function of target eccentricity, and a decrease in RT with increasing target size or accuracy of the cue. An analysis of interaction effects suggests an overlay of attentional and purely sensory mechanisms sharing common stages of visual processing.
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References
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Carrasco, M. (2006). Covert attention increases contrast sensitivity: Psychophysical, neurophysiological, and neuroimaging studies. In S. Martinez-Conde, S. L. Macknik, L. M. Martinez, J. M. Alonso, & P. U. Tse (Eds), Visual Perception. Part I. Fundamentals of Vision: Low and Mid- Level Processes in Perception, Progress in Brain Research, Elsevier, 154, 33-70.
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Carreiro, L. R. R., Haddad, H., & Baldo, M. V. (2011). Effects of intensity and positional predictability of a visual stimulus on simple reaction time. Neuroscience Letters, 10, 345-349.
Cattell, J. M. (1886). The influence of the intensity of the stimulus on the length of the reaction time. Brain, 9, 512-515.
Chan, H. S., & Courtney, A. J. (1998). Stimulus size scaling and foveal load as determinants of the peripheral target detection. Ergonomics, 41, 1433-1452.
Desimone, R., & Duncan, J. (1995). Neural mechanisms of selective visual attention. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 18, 193-222.
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Hughes, H. C. (1984). Effects of flash luminance and positional expectance on visual response latency. Perception & Psychophysics, 36, 177-184.
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Knudsen, E. I. (2007). Fundamental components of attention. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 30, 57-78.
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Luck, S. J., Hillyard, S. A., Mouloua, M., Woldorff, M. G., Clark, V. P., & Hawkins, H. J. (1994). Effects of spatial cuing on luminance detectability: Psychophysical and eletrophysiological evidence for early selection. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 20, 887-904.
Mancebo-Azor, R., Saez-Moreno, J. A., Dominguez-Hidalgo, I., Luna-Del Castillo, J. D., & Rodriguez-Ferrer, J. M. (2009). Efectos del contraste, excentricidad y posición en la detección de estímulos visuales en humanos. Revista de Neurología, 48, 129-133.
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Osaka, N. (1976). Reaction time as a function of peripheral retinal locus around fovea: effect of stimulus size. Perception & Motor Skills, 43, 603-606.
Osaka, N. (1982). Exponent of the latency and brightness power functions in the fovea and periphery of the visual field. Journal of General Psychology, 106, 195-203.
Palmer, S. E. (1999). Vision science. MIT Press, Cambridge.
Piéron, H. (1920). Nouvelles research sur l’analyse du temps de latence sensorielle en fonction des intensités excitatrices. L’Anne Psychologique, 22, 58-142.
Piéron, H. (1952). The sensations. New Haven, Yale University Press.
Pins, D., & Bonnet, C. (1997). Reaction times reveal the contribution of different receptor components in luminance perception. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 4, 359-366.
Posner, M. I. (1978). Chronometric exploration of mind. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey.
Posner, M. I. (1980). Orienting of attention. Quaterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32, 3-25.
Rains, J. D. (1963). Signal luminance and position effects in human reaction time. Vision Research, 3, 239-251.
Rizzolatti, G., Riggio, L., Dascola, I., & Umiltà , C. (1987). Reorienting attention across the horizontal and vertical meridians: evidence in favor of a premotor theory of attention. Neuropsychologia, 25, 31-40.
Rodieck, R.W. (1998). The first steps in seeing. Sinauer Associates, Inc, Massachusetts.
Rovamo, J., & Virsu, V. (1979). An estimation and application of the human cortical magnification factor. Experimental Brain Research, 37, 495-510.
Steinman, S. B., & Steinman, B. A. (1998). Vision and attention. I: Current models of visual attention. Optometry and Vision Science, 75, 146-155.
Sterneberg, S. (1969). The discovery of processing stages: Extensions of Donder’s method. In W.G. Koster (Ed.), Attention and performance II (pp. 276-315). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Summerfield, C., & Egner, T. (2009). Expectation (and attention) in visual cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13, 403-409.
Tassinari, G., & Berlucchi, G. (1995). Covert orienting to non-informative cues: reaction time studies. Behavioral Brain Research, 71, 101-112.
Virsu, V., Näsänen, R., & Osmovita, K. (1987). Cortical magnification and peripheral vision. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 4, 1568-1577.
Bonnet, C., Gurlekian, J., & Harris, P. (1992). Reaction time and visual area: Searching for the determinants. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 30, 396-398.
Carrasco, M., Evert, D., Chang, I., & Katz, S. (1995). The eccentricity effect: Target eccentricity affects performance on conjunction searches. Perception & Psychophysics, 57, 1241-1261.
Carrasco, M., McLean, T. L., Katz, S. M., & Frieder, K. S. (1998). Feature asymmetries in visual search: Effects of display duration, target eccentricity, orientation & spatial frequency. Vision Research, 38, 347-374.
Carrasco, M., & Yeshurun, Y. (1998). The contribution of covert attention to the set-size and eccentricity effects in visual search. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 24, 673-692.
Carrasco, M. (2006). Covert attention increases contrast sensitivity: Psychophysical, neurophysiological, and neuroimaging studies. In S. Martinez-Conde, S. L. Macknik, L. M. Martinez, J. M. Alonso, & P. U. Tse (Eds), Visual Perception. Part I. Fundamentals of Vision: Low and Mid- Level Processes in Perception, Progress in Brain Research, Elsevier, 154, 33-70.
Carrasco, M., Giordano, A. M., & McElree, B. (2006). Attention speeds processing across eccentricity: Feature and conjunction searches. Vision Research, 46, 2028-2040.
Carreiro, L. R. R., Ferreira, I. R., & Machado-Pinheiro, W. (2009). Comparação de desempenho de jogadores de voleibol e não esportistas em tarefas de orientação automática e voluntária da atenção visual: Um estudo exploratório. Psicologia: Teoria e Prática, 11, 38-49.
Carreiro, L. R. R., Haddad, H., & Baldo, M. V. (2011). Effects of intensity and positional predictability of a visual stimulus on simple reaction time. Neuroscience Letters, 10, 345-349.
Cattell, J. M. (1886). The influence of the intensity of the stimulus on the length of the reaction time. Brain, 9, 512-515.
Chan, H. S., & Courtney, A. J. (1998). Stimulus size scaling and foveal load as determinants of the peripheral target detection. Ergonomics, 41, 1433-1452.
Desimone, R., & Duncan, J. (1995). Neural mechanisms of selective visual attention. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 18, 193-222.
Donders, F. C. (1969). On the speed of mental process, 1868. Traduzido em: W.G. Koster (Ed.), Attention and Performance II, Acta Psychologica, 30, 412-431.
Downing, C. J., & Pinker, S. (1985). The spatial structure of visual attention. In M. I. Posner & O. S. M. Martin (Eds.), Attention and performance XI (pp. 171-187). Hillsdale. NJ: Erlbaum.
Field, G. D., & Chichilnisky, E. J. (2007). Information processing in the primate retina: Circuitry and coding. Annual Review Neuroscience, 30, 1-30.
Froeberg, S. (1907). The relation between the magnitude of stimulus and the time of reaction. Archives of Psychology, New York, 16, 1-38.
Galera, C., Cavallet, M., Von Grunau, M., & Panagopoulos, A. (2006). Características atentivas reveladas por dicas múltiplas locais e globais. Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa, 22, 327-334.
Hawkins, H. L., Shafto, M. G., & Richardson, K. (1988). Effects of Target Luminance and Cue Validity on the Latency of Visual Detection Latency. Perception & Psychophysics, 44, 484-492.
Hawkins, H. L., Hillyard, S. A., Luck, S. J., Downing, C. J., Mouloua, M., & Woodward, D. P. (1990). Visual Attention Modulates Signal Detectability. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 16, 802-811.
Helmholtz, H. von (1867/1925). Treatise in Physiological Optics (From 3rd German Edition, Trans.) (3rd Ed., Vol. III). New York: Dover Publications.
Hughes, H. C. (1984). Effects of flash luminance and positional expectance on visual response latency. Perception & Psychophysics, 36, 177-184.
James, W. (1890). Principles of Psychology. New York: Holt.
Knudsen, E. I. (2007). Fundamental components of attention. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 30, 57-78.
Liu, T., Stevens, S. T., & Carrasco, M. (2007). Comparing the time course and efficacy of spatial and feature-based attention. Vision Research, 47, 108”“113.
Luck, S. J., Hillyard, S. A., Mouloua, M., Woldorff, M. G., Clark, V. P., & Hawkins, H. J. (1994). Effects of spatial cuing on luminance detectability: Psychophysical and eletrophysiological evidence for early selection. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 20, 887-904.
Mancebo-Azor, R., Saez-Moreno, J. A., Dominguez-Hidalgo, I., Luna-Del Castillo, J. D., & Rodriguez-Ferrer, J. M. (2009). Efectos del contraste, excentricidad y posición en la detección de estímulos visuales en humanos. Revista de Neurología, 48, 129-133.
Masland, R. H. (2001). The fundamental plan of the retina. Nature Neuroscience, 4, 877-886.
Osaka, N. (1976). Reaction time as a function of peripheral retinal locus around fovea: effect of stimulus size. Perception & Motor Skills, 43, 603-606.
Osaka, N. (1982). Exponent of the latency and brightness power functions in the fovea and periphery of the visual field. Journal of General Psychology, 106, 195-203.
Palmer, S. E. (1999). Vision science. MIT Press, Cambridge.
Piéron, H. (1920). Nouvelles research sur l’analyse du temps de latence sensorielle en fonction des intensités excitatrices. L’Anne Psychologique, 22, 58-142.
Piéron, H. (1952). The sensations. New Haven, Yale University Press.
Pins, D., & Bonnet, C. (1997). Reaction times reveal the contribution of different receptor components in luminance perception. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 4, 359-366.
Posner, M. I. (1978). Chronometric exploration of mind. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey.
Posner, M. I. (1980). Orienting of attention. Quaterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32, 3-25.
Rains, J. D. (1963). Signal luminance and position effects in human reaction time. Vision Research, 3, 239-251.
Rizzolatti, G., Riggio, L., Dascola, I., & Umiltà , C. (1987). Reorienting attention across the horizontal and vertical meridians: evidence in favor of a premotor theory of attention. Neuropsychologia, 25, 31-40.
Rodieck, R.W. (1998). The first steps in seeing. Sinauer Associates, Inc, Massachusetts.
Rovamo, J., & Virsu, V. (1979). An estimation and application of the human cortical magnification factor. Experimental Brain Research, 37, 495-510.
Steinman, S. B., & Steinman, B. A. (1998). Vision and attention. I: Current models of visual attention. Optometry and Vision Science, 75, 146-155.
Sterneberg, S. (1969). The discovery of processing stages: Extensions of Donder’s method. In W.G. Koster (Ed.), Attention and performance II (pp. 276-315). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Summerfield, C., & Egner, T. (2009). Expectation (and attention) in visual cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13, 403-409.
Tassinari, G., & Berlucchi, G. (1995). Covert orienting to non-informative cues: reaction time studies. Behavioral Brain Research, 71, 101-112.
Virsu, V., Näsänen, R., & Osmovita, K. (1987). Cortical magnification and peripheral vision. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 4, 1568-1577.
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Published
2012-07-02
How to Cite
Carreiro, L. R. R., Haddad Jr, H., & Baldo, M. V. C. (2012). Sensory and Attentional Components of Reaction Time:: Effects of the Size, Eccentricity and Predictability of Visual Stimuli. Psicologia: Teoria E Pesquisa, 28(2), 133–140. Retrieved from https://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/revistaptp/article/view/17561
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Estudos Empíricos
