Mask-dependent attentional cuing effects in visual signal detection: The psychometric function for contrast

Abstract

A spatial-cuing paradigm was used to test the hypothesis of Carrasco, Penpeci-Talgar, and Eckstein (2000) that the mask-dependent cuing effects found in visual signal detection by Smith (2000a) were caused by submaximal activation of the transient-orienting system. Mask-dependent cuing was found with a range of stimulus contrasts with pure peripheral cues and with the mixed central-peripheral cues of Smith (2000a), contrary to the predictions of the submaximal activation hypothesis. The use of a pedestal detection task to control spatial uncertainty showed that the cuing effect was due to signal enhancement. A model of mask-dependent cuing is described, which assumes that attention affects t..