Comments on: The Attentional Spotlight http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/03/the-attentional-spotlight.php Understand your mind with the science of psychology - Mon, 04 May 2009 10:30:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Bronson http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/03/the-attentional-spotlight.php/comment-page-1#comment-23580 Bronson Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:17:32 +0000 http://www.spring.org.uk/?p=5553#comment-23580 Susan, What eye tracking experiments show is where the participants' eyes are pointing. I'm not too sure that many eye tracking researchers would think that it shows anything more than that. However, there are theories which argue that attention (at least the component that acts like a spot-light or zoom lens) is a saccade (eye movement) planning system and that at some point in our evolutionary history we gained conscious control over this system so that we did not need to move our eyes to move our attention. This would mean that, as long as the participant is not explicitly instructed to move their attention without moving their eyes, measurments of eye position will most of the time be also a measurement of where attention is. However, when a saccade is planned attention will move to the location of a planned saccade about 100ms (give or take) before the eye movement is performed. Susan,

What eye tracking experiments show is where the participants' eyes are pointing. I'm not too sure that many eye tracking researchers would think that it shows anything more than that. However, there are theories which argue that attention (at least the component that acts like a spot-light or zoom lens) is a saccade (eye movement) planning system and that at some point in our evolutionary history we gained conscious control over this system so that we did not need to move our eyes to move our attention. This would mean that, as long as the participant is not explicitly instructed to move their attention without moving their eyes, measurments of eye position will most of the time be also a measurement of where attention is. However, when a saccade is planned attention will move to the location of a planned saccade about 100ms (give or take) before the eye movement is performed.

]]> By: Jay http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/03/the-attentional-spotlight.php/comment-page-1#comment-23480 Jay Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:48:37 +0000 http://www.spring.org.uk/?p=5553#comment-23480 @ Smith "Do you have any reference for this? I want to know more about it because that's interesting. Thanks" Yeah, sure. It's a study by Pylyshyn and Storm (1988). Here's <a href="http://www.uploadthis.co.uk/uploads/jamie3315/Tracking%20multiple%20independent%20targets.pdf" rel="nofollow">the link</a>. @ Smith

"Do you have any reference for this? I want to know more about it because that's interesting.
Thanks"

Yeah, sure. It's a study by Pylyshyn and Storm (1988). Here's the link.

]]> By: Smith http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/03/the-attentional-spotlight.php/comment-page-1#comment-23442 Smith Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:55:28 +0000 http://www.spring.org.uk/?p=5553#comment-23442 @ Jay "Insightful article. I’ve heard that attention may be split to a maximum of 5 items - any more, and one’s attentions becomes cyclical between said items. What about attention directing - is it directed toward objects, or space?" Do you have any reference for this? I want to know more about it because that's interesting. Thanks @ Jay

"Insightful article. I’ve heard that attention may be split to a maximum of 5 items - any more, and one’s attentions becomes cyclical between said items.

What about attention directing - is it directed toward objects, or space?"

Do you have any reference for this? I want to know more about it because that's interesting.
Thanks

]]> By: Dean http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/03/the-attentional-spotlight.php/comment-page-1#comment-23410 Dean Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:30:33 +0000 http://www.spring.org.uk/?p=5553#comment-23410 For that classical experiment of attentional spotlight, can that's because when people are told those clues, they may think that very soon after the signals (arrow, box) the light very definitely appear and so they press the button as soon as the signals appear, which will certainly be faster than those only pressing the button when the light is on. For those who were not told the hints, they may just think the signals as distractions, but as long as they find the link between the signals and light, they may respond equally faster. For that classical experiment of attentional spotlight, can that's because when people are told those clues, they may think that very soon after the signals (arrow, box) the light very definitely appear and so they press the button as soon as the signals appear, which will certainly be faster than those only pressing the button when the light is on. For those who were not told the hints, they may just think the signals as distractions, but as long as they find the link between the signals and light, they may respond equally faster.

]]> By: Susan Weinschenk http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/03/the-attentional-spotlight.php/comment-page-1#comment-23403 Susan Weinschenk Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:41:12 +0000 http://www.spring.org.uk/?p=5553#comment-23403 Does this mean that the technique of eye tracking and the data coming from them may not be what we think it is? Does this mean that the technique of eye tracking and the data coming from them may not be what we think it is?

]]> By: Jay http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/03/the-attentional-spotlight.php/comment-page-1#comment-23327 Jay Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:57:30 +0000 http://www.spring.org.uk/?p=5553#comment-23327 Insightful article. I've heard that attention may be split to a maximum of 5 items - any more, and one's attentions becomes cyclical between said items. What about attention directing - is it directed toward objects, or space? Insightful article. I've heard that attention may be split to a maximum of 5 items - any more, and one's attentions becomes cyclical between said items.

What about attention directing - is it directed toward objects, or space?

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