Object's size captures attention in a Temporal Order Judgment task L Bernardino1, M Cavallet2, B M Sousa3, C Galera3 |
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1Laboratório de Psicologia Experimental, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil |
| Proulx (2010, PLoS ONE, 5(12):e15293) showed that large objects can capture attention in a visual search task. The present study investigated whether a large stimulus produces an advantage in temporal latency when presented with a small one revealing a greater allocation of attention to larger stimuli. To address this question, 20 observers performed a temporal order judgment task, indicating which of two circles was presented first. In each trial, we presented one circle of constant size (1°) and another whose size ranged (3° or 5°). The circles position and the presentation order was randomized. The first circle appeared after an onset time of 100 ms and the second circle in sequence, after a variable interval: 0, 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 ms. We calculated the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS) and the results showed a negative value to the circle of 3° (- 7,56 ms) and a positive value to the circle of 5° (+8,40 ms). t tests indicate that PSS values are different from zero and between them (p<0,05). This study provides further evidences that objects’ size interfere in the distribution of attention and that there is a size difference limit to this effect. |
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