Focusing and orienting spatial attention differently modulate crowding in central and peripheral vision

Journal of vision

Andrea Albonico¹  Marialuisa Martelli²  Roberta Daini²  Eleonora Frasson³  Emanuela Bricolo⁴ 

[1] Human Vision and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Medicine (Neurology), Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada;NeuroMI - Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milano, Italy;Neuropsychology Unit, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy;Psychology Department, Università La Sapienza, Roma, Italy

关键词: crowding;    peripheral vision;    visual spatial attention;    vision;    attention;   

DOI  :  10.1167/18.3.4

学科分类：眼科学

来源: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology

【 摘 要 】

The allocation of attentional resources to a particular location or object in space involves two distinct processes: an orienting process and a focusing process. Indeed, it has been demonstrated that performance of different visual tasks can be improved when a cue, such as a dot, anticipates the position of the target (orienting), or when its dimensions (as in the case of a small square) inform about the size of the attentional window (focusing). Here, we examine the role of these two components of visuo-spatial attention (orienting and focusing) in modulating crowding in peripheral (Experiment 1 and Experiment 3a) and foveal (Experiment 2 and Experiment 3b) vision. The task required to discriminate the orientation of a target letter “T,” close to acuity threshold, presented with left and right “H” flankers, as a function of target-flanker distance. Three cue types have been used: a red dot, a small square, and a big square. In peripheral vision (Experiment 1 and Experiment 3a), we found a significant improvement with the red dot and no advantage when a small square was used as a cue. In central vision (Experiment 2 and Experiment 3b), only the small square significantly improved participants' performance, reducing the critical distance needed to recover target identification. Taken together, the results indicate a behavioral dissociation of orienting and focusing attention in their capability of modulating crowding. In particular, we confirmed that orientation of attention can modulate crowding in visual periphery, while we found that focal attention can modulate foveal crowding.

【 授权许可】

CC BY