Elsevier

Vision Research

Volume 49, Issue 7, 29 April 2009, Pages 735-745
Vision Research

Attention trades off spatial acuity

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Abstract

Covertly attending to a stimulus location increases spatial acuity. Is such increased spatial acuity coupled with a decreased acuity at unattended locations? We measured the effects of exogenous (transient and involuntary) and endogenous (sustained and voluntary) attention on observers’ acuity thresholds for a Landolt gap resolution task at both attended and unattended locations. Both types of attention increased acuity at the attended and decreased it at unattended locations relative to a neutral baseline condition. These trade-off findings support the idea that limited processing resources affect early vision, even when the display is impoverished and there is no location uncertainty. There was no benefit without a cost.

Keywords

Spatial covert attention
Exogenous attention
Endogenous attention
Spatial resolution
Landolt acuity
Limited resources
Cost and benefit

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1

Current Address: Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.