Are Categorical Spatial Relations Encoded by Shifting Visual Attention between Objects?

ABSTRACT: Perceiving not just values, but relations between values, is critical to human cognition. We tested the predictions of a proposed mechanism for processing categorical spatial relations between two objects-the shift account of relation processing-which states that relations such as 'above' or 'below' are extracted by shifting visual attention upward or downward in space. If so, then shifts of attention should improve the representation of spatial relations, compared to a control condition of identity memory. Participants viewed a pair of briefly flashed objects and were then tested on either the relative spatial relation or identity of one of those objects. Using eye tracking to reveal participants' voluntary shifts of attention over time, we found that when initial fixation was on neither

SUBMITTER: Yuan L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5047635 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature