Facilitation of change detection by continuous focused attention

Abstract

To investigate the effect of continuous focused attention on change detection, Nakashima & Yokosawa (2018) conducted a single object change detection task, manipulating blank durations and locations of study and test images (same/different). They suggested that attention can focus on a local area during a brief blank period, and that continuous focused attention facilitates only the detection of occurring change. We examined this suggestion further. To examine the possibility that observers strategically move attention during a long blank period rather than attention being spontaneously disengaged from a focused area, the image location condition was blocked. Additionally, the numbers of change trials and no-change trials were equated, in contrast to the larger number of change trials in the previous research. Even with these changes in method, our experiment showed that the change detection performance in the same location condition was better in the short blank than the long blank condition only in change trials. Thus, we suggested that attention certainly focuses on an area only briefly and facilitates change detection.