Date of Award
2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Psychology
Abstract
Environmental stimuli often occur in temporally predictable patterns. Given the capacity limits of temporal attention and the functional impairments resulting from inattention, it is advantageous to allocate attention to goal-relevant information while filtering out goal-irrelevant information. The temporal dynamics of attention are malleable and change in response to environmental demands. An unanswered question is the extent to which explicit knowledge of temporal patterns moderates the relationship between exposure to these temporal patterns and the ability to selectively attend to goal-relevant information. In the current study, participants completed a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation ( RSVP ) task in which they identified a blue target letter within a rapidly presented stream of white distractor letters. I manipulated participants potential for explicit knowledge of temporal consistencies in the positions of targets and tracked changes in the dynamics of attention that occurred over five consecutive experimental sessions. Results showed adjusted dynamics of temporal attention after extended practice. However, participants were unable to use the explicit instructions to identify the temporal positions in which targets appeared. Results of a questionnaire showed that participants who explicitly learned the temporal positions of targets improved their performance at a faster rate than those who did not have explicit knowledge.
Recommended Citation
Junker, Matthew, "Effects Of Explicit Learning On The Temporal Allocation Of Attentional Resources" (2018). All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1599.
https://scholars.indianastate.edu/etds/1599