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Abstract:
The use of cueing to measure attentional operations has had
an enormous influence on theories within cognitive psychology and
cognitive neuroscience. One assumption that underlies the use of
cueing is that spatial representations are isomorphic with space in
the physical world. We demonstrate that spatial attention can be
guided by space as it is perceived by using a perceptual illusion
that alters the perceived distance between locations. A cartoon of
a real world scene that included a variant of the Muller-Lyer
illusion was presented on each trial. Depth cues were used to give
the impression that a portion of a wall of a room perceived as
closer looked much shorter than a wall perceived as further away.
The lines that represented these walls were actually the same
length, and the distance between the lines was equal to their
length. We then randomly cued one corner of a line and presented a
target at either the cued location (valid), at the uncued location
of the same line (invalid - within) or at the uncued location of
the different line (invalid - between). Validity effects conformed
to the perceived spatial distances, not the physical distances.
Perceptual organization of the stimulus altered the spatial
representation that guided attention consistent with strong early
interactions between object and spatial pathways.
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