Attention accesses multiple reference frames: evidence from visual neglect

J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1999 Feb;25(1):83-101. doi: 10.1037//0096-1523.25.1.83.

Abstract

Research with normal participants has demonstrated that mechanisms of selective attention can simultaneously gain access to internal representations of spatial information defined with respect to both location- and object-based frames of reference. The present study demonstrates that patients with unilateral spatial neglect following a right-hemisphere lesion are poorer at detecting information on the contralateral left side in both location- and object-based spatial coordinates simultaneously. Moreover, the extent of the neglect is modulated by the probability of a target's appearing in either reference frame; as the probability of sampling a target in a particular frame of reference increases, so does the severity of neglect in the frame. These findings suggest that attention can be flexibly and strategically assigned to a reference frame depending on the contingencies of the task.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Attention*
  • Brain Damage, Chronic / diagnosis
  • Dominance, Cerebral
  • Female
  • Field Dependence-Independence*
  • Hemianopsia / diagnosis
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Orientation*
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual*