Abstract
Previous studies have reported retrospective influences of visual events occurring after a target event. In the attentional attraction effect, a task-irrelevant position cue presented after a target stimulus has been found to distort the perceived position of the target. The present study explored the temporal relationship between the stimulus presentation and speed of response in this effect, by measuring the reaction time in conditions with (or without) the cue presented before, at the same time, or after the target presentation. If the processing speed for the stimuli were equal, the time separation between the presentation of target and cue should lead to a delay in response time when compared with the condition where both stimuli are simultaneously presented. The results indicated no significant difference in reaction time for such comparison. As an interpretation of the results, the processing of the rapid dynamic attentional shift induced by the cue might be faster than that for the target localization, and completed before the establishment of conscious percept without affecting the overall response time.