Varieties of attention: their roles in visual word identification

Derek Besner*, Evan F. Risko, Jennifer A. Stolz, Darcy White, Michael Reynolds, Shannon O’Malley, Serje Robidoux

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    33 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The standard view in cognition is that the identification of visually presented words, up to and including semantic activation, is automatic in various senses. The perspective favored here is that various kinds of attention are intimately involved in the identification of words. Some forms of attention are necessary, whereas others (i.e., executive attention) are recruited to optimize performance. We briefly review results from a variety of literatures that (a) support the latter perspective and (b) are difficult to reconcile with an automatic-processing account.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)162-168
    Number of pages7
    JournalCurrent Directions in Psychological Science
    Volume25
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2016

    Keywords

    • automaticity
    • visual word identification
    • mental control
    • spatial attention
    • pathway control

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