A three-response task reveals how attention alters decision criteria but not appearance

Whether attention alters appearance or just changes decision criteria continues to be controversial. When subjects are forced choose which of two equal targets, one has been pre-cued, a higher contrast, they tend the cued target. This interpreted as increasing apparent contrast However, when must decide whether targets have unequal respond veridically with no effect attention. The discrepancy between these comparative and equality judgments is explained by altering but not appearance. We supposed that apparently proportion their uncertainty in favor To test this hypothesis, we used three-response task, chose target had also option report appeared equal. task disentangled potential effects on from those criteria. found narrower about what constituted were more likely target, supporting stealing hypothesis. Across population, attentional cue