Does extensive practice reduce or eliminate central interference in dual-task processing? We explored the reorganization of task architecture with practice by combining interference analysis (delays in dual-task experiment) and random-walk models of decision making (measuring the decision and non-decision contributions to RT). The main delay…

This study assessed whether two well known effects associated with cognitive control, conflict adaptation (the Gratton effect) and conflict context (proportion congruent effects), reflect a single common or separate control systems. To test this we examined if these two effects generalized from one kind of conflict to another by using a…

Selective attention is usually considered an egocentric mechanism, biasing sensory information based on its behavioural relevance to oneself. This study provides evidence for an equivalent allocentric mechanism that allows passive observers to selectively attend to information from the perspective of another person. In a negative priming task,…

When non-informative peripheral cues precede a target defined by a specific feature, cues that share the critical feature will capture attention while cues that do not will be effectively ignored. We tested whether different attentional control sets can be simultaneously maintained over distinct regions of space. Participants were instructed to…

Unexpected stimuli are often able to distract us away from a task at hand. The present study seeks to explore some of the mechanisms underpinning this phenomenon. Studies of involuntary attention capture using the oddball task have repeatedly shown that infrequent auditory changes in a series of otherwise repeating sounds trigger an automatic…

Reviews the literature dealing with the loci and parameters of visual selective attention. It is maintained that input selection can be found at several points in the course of processing. Specifically, a case is made for very early perceptual selection, called perceptual tuning, which can be based on higher-order conceptual or structural stimulus…

Describes experimental approaches used to demonstrate perception without awareness. Maintains that experimental findings based on all four approaches lead to the conclusion that stimuli are perceived even when observers are unaware of the stimuli. Asserts that future research should assess the functions of information perceived without awareness…

Examines evidence that the research community studying infants' object concept and the community concerned with adult object-based attention have been studying the same natural kind. Maintains that the discovery that the object representations of young infants are the same as the object files of mid-level visual cognition has implications for both…