Blink and Shrink: The Effect of the Attentional Blink on Spatial Processing

The detection or discrimination of the second of 2 targets in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task is often temporarily impaired—a phenomenon termed the attentional blink. This study demonstrated that the attentional blink also affects localization performance. Spatial cues pointed out the possible target positions in a subsequent visual search display. When cues were presented inside an attentional blink (as induced by an RSVP task), the observers ’ capacity to use them was reduced. This effect was not due to attention being highly focused, to general task switching costs, or to complete unawareness of the cues. Instead, the blink induced a systematic localization bias toward the fovea, reflecting what appears to be spatial compression. Vision is set within space and time. Visual objects occupy limited spatial regions as well as limited time periods as they continuously move in and out of people’s visual fields (as birds and cars usually do), as they gradually emerge from behind other, occluding objects when people themselves move around, or as they abruptly come into existence (such as blinking traffic lights). Vision is also highly selective. People are unaware of, or canno