Attention and Perception
Ronald A Rensink
University of British Columbia
In R.A. Scott and S.M. Kosslyn (Eds). Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Interdisciplinary, Searchable, and
Linkable Resource. Wiley Online Library. DOI: 10.1002/9781118900772.etrds0018. pp. 1-14. [web]
This article discusses several key issues concerning
the study of attention and its relation to visual perception, with an emphasis
on behavioral and experiential aspects. It begins
with an overview of several classical works carried out in the latter half of
the 20th century, such as the development of early filter and spotlight models
of attention. This is followed by a survey of subsequent research that extended
or modified these results in significant ways. It covers current work on
various forms of induced blindness and on the capabilities of nonattentional processes. It also includes proposals about
how a "just-in-time" allocation of attention can create the
impression that we see our surroundings in coherent detail everywhere, as well
as how the failure of such allocation can result in various perceptual
deficits. The final section examines issues that have received little
consideration to date, but may be important for new lines of research in the
near future. These include the prospects for a better characterization of
attention, the possibility of more systematic explanations, factors that may
significantly modulate attentional operation, and the
possibility of several kinds of visual attention and visual experience.