Curbing the attentional blink: Practice keeps the mind’s eye open

Abstract

When two targets, T1 and T2, are embedded in a rapid serial visual presentation of distractors, successful report of T2 depends on its lag from T1: When T2 is separated by a few distracters, it is likely to be missed; this phenomenon is known as the Attentional Blink (AB). When T2 is presented consecutively from T1, T2 is likely to be detected despite the temporal proximity of both targets; this effect is called Lag-1 sparing. We studied how the Lag-1 sparing and AB effects change with practice. Observers repeated a typical dual-target-report task over separate days, while behavioral indices and EEG were recorded. Practice increased the Lag-1 sparing and reduced the AB effects, improving the sensitivity to T2 while leaving the response criterion unchanged. With improving sensitivity, T2-related amplitude of P3 and negative deflection (ND), an N2 subcomponent, increased. The latter, especially in the Lag-1 condition, could not fully be explained by changes in the ratio of the T2-hit and miss trials. ND usually indicates spatial target selectivity but here reflects the selection of temporally proximal targets. The effect, therefore, suggests common mechanisms for spatial and temporal selectivity. Relevance of these results for computational models of the AB is discussed.