Figure 1.

Exogenous Cuing of Visual Attention Influences Processing of Target, but Not Cursor, Information

(A) Visual scene during an upward bimanual reaching trial with a displacement of the left cursor (gray circle, representing left hand position) and a flash on the right cursor. Displacements and flashes could occur on either side, i.e., the side of the flash was uninformative for the side of displacement. The same experimental manipulations (flashes and displacements) were applied in separate trials to the targets. Fixation was enforced on the central cross, which was positioned such that target and cursor displacements occurred at the same retinal eccentricity. The lower panel shows the time course of the experimental manipulations (flashes and displacements).

(B) Lateral forces applied in force channels in response to target displacements on attended and unattended sides. Force traces were aligned to the onset of the displacement (time point 0 ms) and flipped such that positive forces indicate a response in the expected direction (i.e., left corrective force for a rightward cursor or leftward target displacement). Force traces were averaged across participants, and shaded areas denote 1 SEM. The solid vertical lines mark response onset, and the dashed lines the time window over which the forces were averaged to obtain the response strength (from 30 ms pre- to 70 ms postresponse onset).

(C) Lateral force in response to displaced cursors analogous to (B).

(D) Average response strength around response onset. Attention had a large effect [12] (d = 0.83) on the response strength to target perturbations (t₁₃ = 3.116, p = 0.008), but a small effect in the opposite direction (d = −0.14) on the response strength to cursor perturbations (t₁₃ = 0.516, p = 0.614).

(E) Response onsets to visual perturbations. Attention had a medium-sized effect on target displacement (d = 0.64, t₁₃ = 2.390, p = 0.033) and an opposite, nonsignificant effect on cursor displacement perturbations (d = −0.56, t₁₃ = 2.080, p = 0.058).

All error bars denote 1 SEM among participants. ^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01.