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Distractor Detection and Suppression Have a Beneficial Effect on Attentional Blink

BACKGROUND: Attentional blink (AB) is a phenomenon that describes the difficulty individuals have in reporting the second of two masked targets if the second target (T2) arrives 200–500 ms after the first target (T1). Recent studies explain the AB from cognitive resources limitation to distractors i...

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Autores principales: Zhao, Jing, Li, Hong, Ding, Cody, Chen, Antao
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3440329/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22984558
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044786
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author Zhao, Jing
Li, Hong
Ding, Cody
Chen, Antao
author_facet Zhao, Jing
Li, Hong
Ding, Cody
Chen, Antao
author_sort Zhao, Jing
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Attentional blink (AB) is a phenomenon that describes the difficulty individuals have in reporting the second of two masked targets if the second target (T2) arrives 200–500 ms after the first target (T1). Recent studies explain the AB from cognitive resources limitation to distractors interference. For example, the temporary loss of control (TLC) hypothesis suggests that the AB is conduced by distractors disrupting the input filter for target processing. The inhibition models suggest that the T1+1 distractor triggers a suppression mechanism which could be beneficial for T1 processing but would suppress T2 at short T1–T2 lags. These models consider that the AB is caused by the appearance of distractors. However, in the present study, two methods were taken to help individuals to detect the distractors more effectively. An attenuated AB deficit was found when the distractors could be excluded or suppressed in time. We consider that under an appropriate condition the distractors detection and suppression have a beneficial effect on attentional blink. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Two methods were employed to help individuals to detect the distractors more effectively: enlarging the low-level-physical characteristic difference between targets and distractors (Experiment 1) and restricting the sets of distractors (Experiment 2). Attenuated AB deficits were found as using the above manipulations. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The present study found when the distractors are detected or identified quickly, they could be effectively suppressed, in order to reduce the interference from the targets and result in a smaller AB deficit. We suggest that the suppression mechanism for distractors have a beneficial effect on AB.
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spelling pubmed-34403292012-09-14 Distractor Detection and Suppression Have a Beneficial Effect on Attentional Blink Zhao, Jing Li, Hong Ding, Cody Chen, Antao PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Attentional blink (AB) is a phenomenon that describes the difficulty individuals have in reporting the second of two masked targets if the second target (T2) arrives 200–500 ms after the first target (T1). Recent studies explain the AB from cognitive resources limitation to distractors interference. For example, the temporary loss of control (TLC) hypothesis suggests that the AB is conduced by distractors disrupting the input filter for target processing. The inhibition models suggest that the T1+1 distractor triggers a suppression mechanism which could be beneficial for T1 processing but would suppress T2 at short T1–T2 lags. These models consider that the AB is caused by the appearance of distractors. However, in the present study, two methods were taken to help individuals to detect the distractors more effectively. An attenuated AB deficit was found when the distractors could be excluded or suppressed in time. We consider that under an appropriate condition the distractors detection and suppression have a beneficial effect on attentional blink. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Two methods were employed to help individuals to detect the distractors more effectively: enlarging the low-level-physical characteristic difference between targets and distractors (Experiment 1) and restricting the sets of distractors (Experiment 2). Attenuated AB deficits were found as using the above manipulations. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The present study found when the distractors are detected or identified quickly, they could be effectively suppressed, in order to reduce the interference from the targets and result in a smaller AB deficit. We suggest that the suppression mechanism for distractors have a beneficial effect on AB. Public Library of Science 2012-09-12 /pmc/articles/PMC3440329/ /pubmed/22984558 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044786 Text en © 2012 Zhao et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Zhao, Jing
Li, Hong
Ding, Cody
Chen, Antao
Distractor Detection and Suppression Have a Beneficial Effect on Attentional Blink
title Distractor Detection and Suppression Have a Beneficial Effect on Attentional Blink
title_full Distractor Detection and Suppression Have a Beneficial Effect on Attentional Blink
title_fullStr Distractor Detection and Suppression Have a Beneficial Effect on Attentional Blink
title_full_unstemmed Distractor Detection and Suppression Have a Beneficial Effect on Attentional Blink
title_short Distractor Detection and Suppression Have a Beneficial Effect on Attentional Blink
title_sort distractor detection and suppression have a beneficial effect on attentional blink
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3440329/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22984558
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044786
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AT dingcody distractordetectionandsuppressionhaveabeneficialeffectonattentionalblink
AT chenantao distractordetectionandsuppressionhaveabeneficialeffectonattentionalblink