Abstract：
Conventional visual search tasks do not address attention directly and their core manipulation of \'set size\' - the number of displayed items - introduces stimulus confounds that hinder interpretation. However, alternative approaches have not been widely adopted, perhaps reflecting their complexity, assumptions, or indirect attention-sampling. Here, a new procedure, the ATtention Location And Size (\'ATLAS\') task used probe displays to track attention\'s location, breadth, and guidance during search. Though most probe displays comprised six items, participants reported only the single item they judged themselves to have perceived most clearly - indexing the attention \'peak\'. By sampling peaks across variable \'choice sets\', the size and position of the attention window during search was profiled. These indices appeared to distinguish narrow- from broad attention, signalled attention to pairs of items where it arose and tracked evolving attention-guidance over time. ATLAS is designed to discriminate five key search modes: serial-unguided, sequential-guided, unguided attention to \'clumps\' with local guidance, and broad parallel-attention with or without guidance. This initial investigation used only an example set of highly regular stimuli, but its broader potential should be investigated.
摘要：
传统的视觉搜索任务不能直接解决注意力，它们对“设置大小”（显示项目的数量）的核心操纵引入了阻碍解释的刺激混淆。然而,替代方法尚未被广泛采用，也许反映了它们的复杂性，假设,或间接关注抽样。这里,一个新的程序，“注意位置和大小”(“ATLAS”)任务使用探针显示来跟踪注意位置,广度，搜索过程中的指导。尽管大多数探测器显示包含六个项目，参与者只报告了他们认为自己感觉最清楚的一个项目-索引注意力\“峰值\”。通过跨变量\'选择集\'采样峰值，搜索过程中注意窗口的大小和位置进行了分析。这些指数似乎与广泛的关注区分开来，发出了对出现的项目的关注信号，并随着时间的推移跟踪了不断发展的关注指导。ATLAS旨在区分五种关键搜索模式：串行无引导，顺序引导，在当地指导下，无指导地关注“团块”，以及有或没有指导的广泛平行关注。最初的调查仅使用了一组高度规则的刺激，但其更广泛的潜力应该被调查。
