The dynamics of prior entry in visual processing

An attended stimulus reduces the perceptual latency of a later stimulus at the same location, leading to the intriguing finding that the perceived order between the two is often reversed. This prior-entry effect has been well established in a number of different cueing paradigms, mostly involving spatial attentional shifts. Here we assess the time-course of prior entry when all stimuli appear in rapid serial presentation at one location. Our findings indicate that the size of the attentional enhancement is strongly affected by the stimulus onset asynchrony between cue and target, with a rapid early peak, followed by decay. When task-irrelevant cues are used, the cueing effect on prior entry is short-lived and peaks as early as 50 ms. The benefit extends to about 100 ms when task-relevant cues are employed. These results fit with a straightforward computational model of transient attentional enhancement, peaking about 80-100 ms after stimulus detection. © 2012 Copyright Psychology Press Ltd