Di Lollo, V., Enns, J. T., & Rensink, R. A. (2000). Competition for consciousness among visual events: the psychophysics of reentrant visual pathways. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 129, 481-507.

Abstract

Advances in neuroanatomy and physiology have called attention to reentrant signaling as the predominant form of communication between brain areas. We propose that explicit use be made of reentrant processing in theories of perception. To show that this can be done effectively in one domain, we report on a series of psychophysical experiments involving a form of masking which defies explanation by current feed-forward theories. The masking occurs when a brief display of target plus mask is continued with the mask alone. We report evidence of two masking processes: an early process affected by physical factors such as adapting luminance and contour proximity, and a later process affected by attentional factors such as set size, target pop-out and spatial pre-cuing. We call this later process masking by object substitution, because it occurs whenever there is a mismatch between the reentrant visual representation and the ongoing lower-level activity produced by current sensory input. Iterative reentrant processing is formalized in a computational model that provides an excellent fit to the data. We argue that our model provides a more comprehensive account of all forms of visual masking than the long-held feed-forward views based on inhibitory contour interactions.

Di Lollo, V., Kawahara, J., Zuvic, S. M., & Visser, T. A. W. (2001). The preattentive emperor has no clothes: a dynamic redressing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 479-492.

Abstract

Preattentive models of early vision have not been supported by the evidence. Instead, we propose an input filtering system which is dynamically reconfigured so as to optimize performance on the task at hand. As a case in point, we examined Sagi and Julesz's (1985a) claim that detection tasks are processed preattentively and efficiently (shallow search slopes) whereas discrimination tasks require focal attention and yield inefficient steep slopes. In five visual search experiments, we found efficiency to depend not on the nature of the task but on whether the task is single or dual. The second component of a dual task, whether detection or discrimination, is performed inefficiently if it does not fit the configuration of the input system, which had been set optimally for the first component. But even the second component is processed efficiently if there is enough time to reconfigure the system after processing the first component.

Additional Publications

Kawahara, J., Enns, J. T., & Di Lollo, V.  The attentional blink is not a unitary phenomenon.    Psychological Research/Psychologische Forschung.  (in press).

Di Lollo, V., von Mühlenen, A., Enns, J. T., & Bridgeman, B.  Target and mask duration in metacontrast masking:  Data and models.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.  (in press).

Kawahara, J., Zuvic, S. M., Enns, J. T., & Di Lollo, V. (2003). Task switching mediates the attentional blink even without backward masking. Perception & Psychophysics, 65, 339-351.

Ghorashi, S. M. S., Zuvic, S. M., Visser, T. A. W., & Di Lollo, V. (2003). Focal distraction: Spatial shifts of attention are not required for contingent capture. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and
            Performance, 29, 78-91.

Di Lollo, V., Enns, J. T., & Rensink, R. A. (2002) Object substitution without reentry? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 131, 594-596.

Enns, J. T., & Di Lollo, V. (2002). What competition? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6, 118.

Enns, J. T., & Di Lollo, V. (2001). An object substitution theory of visual masking. In T. Shipley & P. Kellman (Eds.), From Fragments to Objects: Segmentation and Grouping in Vision (pp. 121-143). Advances in
            Psychology Series. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Kawahara, J., Di Lollo, V., & Enns, J. T. (2001). Attentional requirements in visual detection and identification: evidence from the attentional blink. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and
            Performance, 27, 969-984.

Enns, J. T., Austen, E., Di Lollo, V., Rauschenberger, R., & Yantis, S. (2001). New objects dominate luminance transients in setting attentional priority. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and
            Performance, 27, 1287-1302.

Enns, J. T., Visser, T. A. W., Kawahara, J., & Di Lollo, V. (2001). Visual masking and task switching in the attentional blink. In K. L. Shapiro (Ed.), The Limits of Attention: Temporal Constraints on Human Information
            Processing. Oxford University Press.

Zuvic, S. M., Visser, T. A. W., & Di Lollo, V. (2000). Direct estimates of processing delays in the attentional blink. Psychological Research/Psychologische Forschung, 63, 192-198.

Enns, J. T., & Di Lollo, V. (2000). What’s new in visual masking? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 345?352.