Cited by 542Visual perception and processing mechanismsNeurobiology of Language and BilingualismReading and Literacy Development

Word meanings can be accessed but not reported during the attentional blink

Luck, Steven J., Vogel, Edward K., Shapiro, Kimron L.·1996·Nature

Abstract

After the detection of a target item in a rapid stream of visual stimuli, there is a period of 400-600 ms during which subsequent targets are missed. This impairment has been labelled the 'attentional blink'. It has been suggested that, unlike an eye blink, the additional blink does not reflect a suppression of perceptual processing, but instead reflects a loss of information at a postperceptual stage, such as visual short-term memory. Here we provide electrophysiological evidence that words presented during the attentional blink period are analysed to the point of meaning extraction, even though these extracted meanings cannot be reported 1-2s later. This shows that the attentional blink does indeed reflect a loss of information at a postperceptual stage of processing, and provides a demonstration of the modularity of human brain function.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/383616a0

Cites

16 of 16 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Luck, S. J., Vogel, E. K., & Shapiro, K. L.
Affiliations
  • University of Iowa (US)
  • Bangor University (GB)
Venue
Nature
Published
1996-10
Volume
383
Issue
6601
Pages
616-618
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W2073997583
Cited by
542
References
16
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 25 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 12
FWCI
5.97
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
Keywords
attentional blink, visual short-term memory, rapid serial visual presentation, electrophysiology
MeSH terms
Adult, Attention, Brain, Evoked Potentials, Visual, Humans, Language, Semantics, Visual Perception

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review