RUI: Sensitivity to Information in the Path of a Moving Covert Attention Shift

Recent research has established clearly that people can shift their visual attention without moving their eyes. This research will determine people's sensitivity to information in the path of such an attention shift, one made without eye movement from the point of fixation to the location in the visual periphery of a target character (usually a letter or number). In the experiments, attention will be summoned to the target location in one of several ways: (1) the appearance of the target; (2) a bar-shaped precue appearing near the target location; or (3) an arrow precue, appearing at the fixation point, pointing toward where the target will appear. There will be a probe character, also usually a letter or number, appearing halfway between the fixation point and the target after a delay whose length will vary. The chief item of interest will be the accuracy of identifying the probe character across the range of delays with each of the three methods of manipulating attention. Results of the research will help indicate whether attention resembles a moving spotlight, a zoom lens opening around fixation, or is spread out over the entire visual field. The research will have implications for the ideal arrangement of visual units for situations in which tasks must be performed under visually demanding conditions, such as nuclear reactor operation, flying an airplane, or driving a car.