The attentional white bear phenomenon: The mandatory allocation of attention to expected distractor locations.

The authors devised a prestimulus-probe method to assess the allocation of attention as a function of participants' top-down expectancies concerning distractor and target locations. Participants performed the flanker task, and distractor locations remained fixed. On some trials, instead of the flanker display, either 2 simultaneous dots or a horizontal line appeared. The dot in the expected distractor location was perceived to occur before the dot in the expected empty location, and the line appeared to extend from the expected distractor location to the expected empty location, suggesting that attention is allocated to expected distractor locations prior to stimulus onset. The authors propose that a process-all mechanism guides attention to expected locations of all stimuli regardless of task demands and that this constitutes a major cause for failures of selective attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Object features, object locations, and object files: Which does selective attention activate and when?

The representation within which attention operates was investigated in 3 experiments. The task was similar to that of R. Egly, J. Driver, and R. D. Rafal (1994). Participants had to detect the presence of a target at 1 of 4 ends of 2 shapes, differing in color and form. A precue appeared at 1 of the 4 possible corners. The 2 shapes occupied either the same or different locations in the cuing and target displays. The results showed that the cued object location was attended whether or not space was task relevant, whereas the cued object features (color and form) were attended only when these were task relevant. Moreover, when object file continuity was maintained through continuous movement, attention was found to follow the cued object file as it moved while also accruing to the cued location. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Location dominance in attending to color and shape.

Investigated in 4 experiments whether Ss direct attention to stimulus location when attempting to attend to its color or shape. In the 1st 2 experiments, a given property (location, color, or shape) of a letter cue instructed Ss whether to report any letters from a subsequent display. Regardless of which property was relevant, Ss reported letters adjacent to the cue and not those similar to its color or shape. In the last 2 experiments, the varied location of a cue was irrelevant to the task, whereas its varied color instructed Ss to report a letter in a given location or of a given shape. Targets adjacent to the cue were reported faster than those remote from the cue. The results suggest that attempting to attend to any aspect of a stimulus entails directing attention to location. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Water bonding of 50-mm-diameter mirror substrates to AlGaInP light-emitting diode wafers

The feasibility of bonding 50-mm-diameter Si with a Au/AuBe mirror to AlGaInP light-emitting diode (LED) wafers is demonstrated. Wafer bonding over the entire wafer area is achieved while the metallic mirror still maintains high reflectivity. Using this technique, the mirror-substrate AlGaInP LEDs are fabricated across an entire 50-mm wafer. The test data show that 98% of the dice with operating voltages <2.2 V at 20 mA and 85% of the dice with luminous intensity in the 130∼140 mcd region. The wafer-bonded mirror-substrate LED lamps operating at 626 nm can emit 3 lm at 20 mA with a forward voltage of 2 V, corresponding to a luminous efficiency of 74 lm/W. Moreover, they present a peak power efficiency of 21% with 4 mW output at 10 mA (1.9 V). Essentially no degradation is observed for these LEDs after 2000 h stress at 80°C and 50 mA (55.6 A/cm²). The results indicate the mirror-substrate AlGaInP LEDs of highly reliable and efficient performance.     

Diluting the burden of load: Perceptual load effects are simply dilution effects.

The substantial distractor interference obtained for small displays when the target appears alone is reduced in large displays when the target is embedded among neutral letters. This finding has been interpreted as reflecting low-load and high-load processing, respectively, thereby supporting the theory of perceptual load (Lavie & Tsal, 1994). However, a possible alternative interpretation of this effect is that the distractor is similarly processed in both displays, yet its interference in the large ones is diluted by the presence of the neutral letters. We separated the effects of load and dilution by introducing dilution displays. They contained as many letters as the high-load displays but were clearly distinguished from the target, thus allowing for a low-load processing mode. Distractor interference obtained under both the low-load and high-load conditions disappeared under the dilution condition. Hence, the display size effect traditionally misattributed to perceptual load is fully accounted for by dilution. Furthermore, when dilution is controlled for, it is high load not low load producing greater interference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inattention magnifies perceived length: The attentional receptive field hypothesis.

Five experiments demonstrated that a briefly presented vertical line is judged as longer when it is unattended relative to when it is attended. This effect was obtained in estimating the length of 1 of 5 possible lines (Experiment 1) and in matching the length of a test line to a criterion line (Experiments 3 and 4). The directional effect of attention was eliminated when participants estimated the length difference between 2 simultaneously presented lines (Experiment 2). An additional matching experiment (Experiment 5) demonstrated similar lengthening effects for unattended lines and for unattended distances separated by vertically displaced dots. It is proposed that the metric for unattended stimuli is composed of large attentional receptive fields and that the final output is mediated by rounding up processes, so that the unattended line is systematically perceived as longer than the attended one. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Standardized seismic design spectra for nuclear plant equipment

Standardized seismic design spectra were developed for the nuclear plant equipment. Such standardized spectra will reduce unnecessary spectrum computation for the individual plants as well as expedite the selection, purchase and qualification of equipment. Most attractive of all, standard equipment such as electric components can be conservatively qualified just once and then used by all plants located in the same seismic zones. Presented here are idealized design spectrum peak envelopes for different types of structure materials and for both the SSE and OBE conditions. Procedures are also provided for the application of the design spectrum peak envelopes to the seismic qualification of equipment either by dynamic analysis or testing.     

Further comments on feature integration: A reply to Briand and Klein.

K. A. Briand and R. M. Klein's (see record 1989-31779-001) reply to my critique (see record 1989-31807-001) of the feature integration theory (FIT) argues that my criticism is not sufficiently substantiated to question any aspect of FIT. In the present reply I contend that no argument presented by Briand and Klein is justified, and thus, my criticism of both theoretical and empirical aspects of FIT remains, at least for the time being, valid. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Much dilution little load in Lavie and Torralbo's (2010) response: A reply.

Lavie and Torralbo (2010) present a response to the critique of load theory put forward by Tsal and Benoni (2010). We note that this response includes long discussions that dilute the major points of the debate and deals only with the first experiment in Tsal and Benoni, and we question whether it covers the broader critique we offer. In our reply, we argue against the points made by Lavie and Torralbo and propose that the “dilution” critique of the theory is justified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do illusory conjunctions support the feature integration theory? A critical review of theory and findings.

Presents a critical review of the feature integration theory and the studies of A. Treisman and H. Schmidt (see record 1982-07512-001); W. Prinzmetal et al (see record 1986-26854-001); and K. A. Briand and R. M. Klein (see record 1987-23943-001) and suggests that the phenomenon of illusory conjunctions does not support Treisman's theory of feature integration. I propose that the theory is too vague because it does not explicate the processes that glue features into objects and that each of the reviewed studies has suffered from methodological difficulties that leave the data open to alternative interpretations. The only solid demonstration that attention facilitates feature integration is provided by Experiment 3 of Prinzmetal et al.'s study. This finding, however, is irrelevant to the question of whether feature perception and feature integration can or cannot be performed preattentively. It may simply suggest that in addition to its effect on feature perception, attention can also influence feature integration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)