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Abstract:
After the detection of a target (T1) in a rapid stream of
visual stimuli, there is a period of 400-600 ms during which a
subsequent target (T2) is missed. This impairment in performance
has been labeled the "attentional blink" (AB). Recent theories
propose that the AB reflects a bottleneck in working memory
consolidation such that T2 cannot be consolidated until after T1 is
consolidated and is therefore susceptible to masking from
subsequent stimuli. For example, when T2 is the final item in the
stimulus stream and is therefore not masked, no AB is observed. In
the present study, we used the P3 component of the event-related
potential waveform to provide additional support for this
explanation of the AB. Specifically, we found that the P3 elicited
for unmasked T2 items presented during the AB was delayed compared
to the P3 elicited for the same items that were presented after the
AB period. These results indicate that unmasked T2 items take
longer to reach working memory when they are presented during the
AB than when they are presented after the AB, which is consistent
with consolidation-bottleneck models of the AB.
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