A Distractive Effect of Peripheral Attention on Foveal Trigram Recognition

The recognizability of tachistoscopically presented foveal trigrams was investigated as a function of paying attention, or not paying attention, to simultaneously exposed parafoveal trigrams. The same set of stimuli was presented in both conditions. All six observers made a significant number of errors at 50 ms stimulus duration in the attentive condition. This occurred even though they could not correctly report the parafoveal stimulus. Performance reached 95% correct at 200 ms stimulus duration, just when parafoveal trigrams were occasionally identified. At 50 ms stimulus duration in the attentive condition, errors were more marked for non-wordlike center trigrams. When the parafoveal trigram was non-wordlike, its distractive effect was greater than when it was wordlike. Neither distance nor position of the parafoveal trigrams were significant factors. The distractive effect of peripheral attention on recognition of letter stimuli suggests that information from parafoveal stimuli is available through attention. The results do not suggest that during a short exposure parafoveal information triggers attention: they rather indicate that conscious attention determines the processing of parafoveal stimuli.