What's new in visual masking?

A brief display that is clearly visible when shown alone can be rendered invisible by the subsequent presentation of a second visual stimulus. Several recently described backward masking effects are not predicted by current theories of visual masking, including masking by four small dots that surround (but do not touch) a target object and masking by a surrounding object that remains on display after the target object has been turned off. A crucial factor in both of these effects is attention: almost no masking occurs if attention can be rapidly focused on the target, whereas powerful masking ensues if attention directed at the target is delayed. A new theory of visual masking, inspired by developments in neuroscience, can account for these effects, as well as more traditional masking effects. In addition, the new theory sheds light on related research, such as the attentional blink, inattentional blindness and change blindness.

Visual Attentional Orienting in Developing Hockey Players

Covert visual orienting was measured in hockey players at two ages (12 and 15 years) and two skill levels (low and high), and in college students with no hockey training. Two types of cues were tested at five cue-target intervals (100-850 ms): digits that informed of likely target locations, and abrupt luminance changes that occurred randomly at possible target locations. High-skill 15-year-olds were best able to take advantage of the general alerting produced by both cues: their responses were fastest overall and changed least with cue-target interval. For the information cue, all participants showed increased benefits and costs as cue-target interval was increased, but high-skill players had generally smaller orienting effects than low-skill players. For the stimulus cue, all participants showed an inhibition to targets at cued locations, but the high-skill players showed greater change in the response time function over cue-target interval. These results support an association between hockey skill and several important aspects of visual attention: sustained alertness, efficient voluntary orienting, and efficient processing of abrupt stimulus events.