The Limits of Attention: Temporal Constraints in Human Information Processing

For psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists interested in 'attention', the issue of the 'limits' of our attentional mechanisms is one of great importance and topicality- what are the temporal constraints when we attend to and process information How well can we switch our attention from one task to another, or from one sensory modality to another? In what circumstances can the presentation of one stimulus prevent the recognition of a further stimulus? By seeking answers to such questions, we can learn a great deal about the systems underlying such attentional processes, develop more accurate models of our attentional mechanisms, and even get closer to answering some of the many outstanding questions about consciousness itself. In The limits of attention, Kimron Shapiro whose own work on the 'attentional blink' is central to this debate, has brought together a high quality team of attention researchers to discuss and debate these issues, key to the study of attention. This is an important book for cognitive psychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, and philosophers.

Table of Contents:
Contents List Chapter 1 - Temporal methods for studying attention: how did we get here and where are we going? Chapter 2 - The attentional blink and task switching within and across modalities Chapter 3 - Task switching: using RSVP methods to study an experimenter-cued shift of set Chapter 4 - Visual masking and task switching in the attentional blink Chapter 5 - The attentional blink bottleneck Chapter 6 - Perceptual and central interference in dual-task performance Chapter 7 - Multiple sources of interference in dual-task performance: the cases of the attentional blink and the psychological refractory period Chapter 8 - Cross-modal interactions in dual-task paradigms Chapter 9 - Getting beyond the serial/parallel debate in visual search: a hybrid approach Chapter 10 - Visual attention moves no faster than the eyes Chapter 11 - Perceptual links and attentional blinks Chapter 12 - A spatiotemporal framework for disorders of visual attention

Review :
The chapters are all very readable, and replete with up-to-date references. This makes the book both an admirable introduction to the topic area and a very useful reference work. I have found it a valuable source of ideas in preparing material on attention for third-level undergraduates; the style of writing recommends the book for inclusion in the reading lists of many courses. Applied Cognitive Psychology ... excellent book. Applied Cognitive Psychology