Disengaging attention sets the temporal limit of attentive tracking

Jeroen S. Benjamins; Ignace T.C. Hooge; Maarten J. van der Smagt; Frans A.J. Verstraten

doi:10.1016/j.visres.2006.11.006

Disengaging attention sets the temporal limit of attentive tracking

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

At first sight, recent studies investigating the temporal limits of attentive tracking show contradictory outcomes. Attentively tracking an object in an ambiguous apparent motion display can have an upper limit of around 0.4 revolutions per second (rps) [Horowitz, T. S., Holcombe, A. O., Wolfe, J. M., Arsenio, H. C., & DiMase, J. S. (2004). Attentional pursuit is faster than attentional saccade. Journal of Vision, 4, 585-603] or 1 rps [Verstraten, F. A., Cavanagh, P., & Labianca, A. T. (2000). Limits of attentive tracking reveal temporal properties of attention. Vision Research, 40, 3651-3664.]. Here, we demonstrate that this difference depends on presentation conditions: an important determinant for the temporal limit of attentive tracking appears to be the duty cycle. Tracking performance at high(er) rates decreases to chance with increasing duty cycle, while at low rates duty cycle hardly has an effect on performance. Results are discussed in terms of (dis)engagement of attention.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1055-1059
Number of pages	5
Journal	Vision Research
Volume	47
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2006.11.006
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2007

Funding

This research was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO-Pionier). We thank Todd Horowitz and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments.

Keywords

Apparent motion
Attention
Temporal limits

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title = "Disengaging attention sets the temporal limit of attentive tracking",

abstract = "At first sight, recent studies investigating the temporal limits of attentive tracking show contradictory outcomes. Attentively tracking an object in an ambiguous apparent motion display can have an upper limit of around 0.4 revolutions per second (rps) [Horowitz, T. S., Holcombe, A. O., Wolfe, J. M., Arsenio, H. C., \& DiMase, J. S. (2004). Attentional pursuit is faster than attentional saccade. Journal of Vision, 4, 585-603] or 1 rps [Verstraten, F. A., Cavanagh, P., \& Labianca, A. T. (2000). Limits of attentive tracking reveal temporal properties of attention. Vision Research, 40, 3651-3664.]. Here, we demonstrate that this difference depends on presentation conditions: an important determinant for the temporal limit of attentive tracking appears to be the duty cycle. Tracking performance at high(er) rates decreases to chance with increasing duty cycle, while at low rates duty cycle hardly has an effect on performance. Results are discussed in terms of (dis)engagement of attention.",

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AU - Benjamins, Jeroen S.

AU - Hooge, Ignace T.C.

AU - van der Smagt, Maarten J.

AU - Verstraten, Frans A.J.

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N2 - At first sight, recent studies investigating the temporal limits of attentive tracking show contradictory outcomes. Attentively tracking an object in an ambiguous apparent motion display can have an upper limit of around 0.4 revolutions per second (rps) [Horowitz, T. S., Holcombe, A. O., Wolfe, J. M., Arsenio, H. C., & DiMase, J. S. (2004). Attentional pursuit is faster than attentional saccade. Journal of Vision, 4, 585-603] or 1 rps [Verstraten, F. A., Cavanagh, P., & Labianca, A. T. (2000). Limits of attentive tracking reveal temporal properties of attention. Vision Research, 40, 3651-3664.]. Here, we demonstrate that this difference depends on presentation conditions: an important determinant for the temporal limit of attentive tracking appears to be the duty cycle. Tracking performance at high(er) rates decreases to chance with increasing duty cycle, while at low rates duty cycle hardly has an effect on performance. Results are discussed in terms of (dis)engagement of attention.

AB - At first sight, recent studies investigating the temporal limits of attentive tracking show contradictory outcomes. Attentively tracking an object in an ambiguous apparent motion display can have an upper limit of around 0.4 revolutions per second (rps) [Horowitz, T. S., Holcombe, A. O., Wolfe, J. M., Arsenio, H. C., & DiMase, J. S. (2004). Attentional pursuit is faster than attentional saccade. Journal of Vision, 4, 585-603] or 1 rps [Verstraten, F. A., Cavanagh, P., & Labianca, A. T. (2000). Limits of attentive tracking reveal temporal properties of attention. Vision Research, 40, 3651-3664.]. Here, we demonstrate that this difference depends on presentation conditions: an important determinant for the temporal limit of attentive tracking appears to be the duty cycle. Tracking performance at high(er) rates decreases to chance with increasing duty cycle, while at low rates duty cycle hardly has an effect on performance. Results are discussed in terms of (dis)engagement of attention.

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KW - Temporal limits

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Disengaging attention sets the temporal limit of attentive tracking

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Keywords

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