Tracking flanker task dynamics: Evidence for continuous attentional selectivity.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the dynamics of selective attention has been a central research goal in the cognitive sciences. One account proposes that attention is unitary and increases in selectivity continuously over time. An alternative account proposes that attention switches from a low to a high state of selectivity at a discrete point in time when a distinct selective attention mechanism is engaged. Despite posing fundamentally different theoretical perspectives on selective attention, both accounts have successfully explained outcome-based data, such as reaction time. Here, we used mouse-tracking, which provides high temporal resolution to record movement trajectories in a flanker task. We examined spatial and temporal movement dynamics for characteristics of continuous and discrete

SUBMITTER: Kinder KT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10239561 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature