Abstract

This experiment studies the ability of human observers to control the allocation of attentional resources in a restricted portion of visual space. We asked whether observers could exclude from the focus of attention a critical area that lays inside it. A discrimination task was used. The hypothesis was that a more demanding task might produce a redistribution of attentional resources. Results showed that the observers successfully allocated attention to the cued region. When the cued region was demarcated by a figure, response to the target was speeded up within the figure. Also, the results showed that observers were able to suppress information arising from an irrelevant location that fell between two relevant locations if the task induced the observers to distribute the attentional resources more efficiently.