Abstract
Object-based attention enables us to simultaneously select and report two features from the same visual object. Does feature-based attention contribute similarly to visual selection? In the present study, we investigated the concurrent discrimination of two motion fields with a divided attention paradigm. We found that dual-task performance improved when the two fields conformed to a continuous optic flow, consistent with “object-based” selection. However, we found no such improvement when the two motion fields were merely similar, as would have been expected from “feature-based” selection. Therefore, feature similarity does not facilitate attentional selection in the same way as belonging to the same object does.
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The present work was supported by the BMBF Bernstein Network for Computational Neuroscience and by the State of Saxony-Anhalt.
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Festman, Y., Braun, J. Does feature similarity facilitate attentional selection?. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 72, 2128–2143 (2010). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196689
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196689