Figure 1.

Schematic diagram of a single trial in the 4‐Dot Masking Task. The beginning of each visual backward masking trial was signaled by two 100 ms flashes of a fixation point, followed by a 600‐ms blank period. A target array of four squares, each with a gap on one of three sides, was presented for 33.3 ms, followed by a 66.6 ms mask at one of four possible SOAs: 0, 50, 100, 150 ms (SOA 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively). The mask consisted of four dots that surrounded only one of four squares of the target array: it identified which of the four squares was the target on any given trial. Participants were asked to identify the location of a gap in the target (top, bottom, or left) by pressing a corresponding button with their dominant hand.