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Psychological Phenomena

Attentional Blink

Perception and Psychophysics Effects

Attentional blink is a psychological effect in which a person struggles to notice a second target in a rapid visual sequence if it appears between about 200 and 500 milliseconds after a first target and is followed by further distracting items. In a fast stream of letters, for example, if two particular letters are the targets to spot, the second is often missed when another letter intervenes between them. The effect is typically measured using rapid serial visual presentation tasks, in which items flash one after another in quick succession, and it has also been observed with backward-masked visual targets and with auditory stimuli. The term attentional blink was first used in 1992, though the underlying phenomenon was likely known before that.

Facts
Core Claim
Attentional blink is a psychological effect in which a person struggles to notice a second visual target in a rapid sequence if it appears 200 to 500 milliseconds after the first and is followed by distractions. 1
First Described Year
1992 1
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Attentional Blink
Wikimedia Foundation
  • lead section
    Attentional blink (AB) is a psychological effect where people struggle to notice a second visual target in a rapid sequence if it appears 200 to 500 milliseconds after the first and is followed by distractions.
  • Research section
    The term attentional blink was first used in 1992, although the phenomenon was probably known before.
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