Voluntary Attention Enhances Contrast Appearance
Open accessAbstract
Voluntary (endogenous, sustained) covert spatial attention selects relevant sensory information for prioritized processing. The behavioral and neural consequences of such selection have been extensively documented, but its phenomenology has received little empirical investigation. We asked whether voluntary attention affects the subjective appearance of contrast—a fundamental dimension of visual perception. We used a demanding rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task to direct endogenous attention to a given location and measured perceived contrast at the attended and unattended locations. Attention increased perceived contrast of suprathreshold stimuli and also improved performance on a concurrent orientation discrimination task at the cued location. We ruled out response bias as an alternative account of the pattern of results. Thus, this study establishes that voluntary attention enhances perceived contrast. This phenomenological consequence links behavioral and neurophysiological studies on the effects of attention.
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Automatic attention and voluntary attention to particular visual stimuli increase perception of both contrast and color saturation.
“For example, a large body of research has demonstrated that both automatic attention and voluntary attention to particular visual stimuli increases perception of both contrast and color saturation44,45.”
From Paying attention to attention in depression (2019) · cites this paper as [44]
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- Authors
- Liu, T., Abrams, J., & Carrasco, M.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Liu, Taosheng
- Carrasco, Marisa
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2009-03
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 354-362
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- PMC
- PMC2657200
- OpenAlex
- W2159288231
- Cited by
- 172
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 6.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Eye Institute (R01EY016200)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Visual Attention and Saliency Detection
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- voluntary attention, top-down attention, covert spatial attention, perceived contrast, rapid serial visual presentation, orientation discrimination, response bias
- MeSH terms
- Attention, Cues, Humans, Reaction Time, Reinforcement, Psychology, Social Perception, Visual Perception, Volition, Signal Detection, Psychological
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