Objects but not concepts modulate the size of the attended region

ABSTRACT

Here we investigated the types of stimuli that modulate the size of the attentional spotlight. In particular, it has been previously shown that conceptual cues that either directly refer to or are semantically related to particular spatial locations can shift attention to that location (known as “conceptual cueing”). For example, reading the word sun or joy can shift attention upward whereas the word boot or hostile can shift attention downward. Here, therefore, we tested whether words could modulate the size of the attended area. Across five experiments, we found that words that either directly referred to, or were abstractly associated with, particular sizes (small versus large) did not change the size of the attentional spotlight, whereas the presence of differently sized stimuli did, as evidenced by faster responses to targets when the spotlight is small than when it is large. This suggests that physical but not conceptual inducers can modulate the size of the attentional spotlight. This highlights an important difference between the regulation of spotlight size and shifts of attention, supporting the notion that they are subserved by distinct mechanisms.

KEYWORDS:

• Visual attention
• Spatial attention
• Visual span
• Attentional spotlight
• Conceptual cueing
• Zoom-lens

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Reuben Rideaux and Anne Wentworth-Perry for collecting the data.

Funding information

This research was supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Research Award [grant number DE140101734] awarded to S.C.G.; and an ARC Discovery Project grant [grant number DP110104553] awarded to M.E.