Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1985

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Abstract

In these studies subjects judged the curvature direction of one of a pair of parentheses. In one condition the pair of parentheses formed a single object and in a second condition the parentheses formed two objects. The one- and two-object conditions were used to examine the contrasting positions of mental spotlight and object-based theories of attention. Mental spotlight theory holds that attention is allocated to regions in visual space, whereas object-based theory states that attention is allocated to objects in visual space. To evaluate the positions of these theories, the retinal proximity between the parentheses was varied. Mental spotlight theory predicts that performance differences, due to the changes of retinal proximity, should be the same regardless of whether the stimuli form one or two objects. Object-based theory predicts that retinal proximity facilitates performance for the one-object condition and retards performance for the two-object condition. The results indicated that retinal proximity facilitated performance for the one-object parentheses but retarded performance for the two-object parentheses. These results support the view that attention is allocated to objects rather than regions in visual space.

Extent

51 p.

Comments

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1985.|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1985.

Identifier

FADT14249

Format

pdf

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