Spatial reference frame of attention Jiang & Won 1

Visuospatial attention is strongly biased to locations that frequently contained a search target before. However, the function of this bias depends on the reference frame in which attended locations are coded. Previous research has shown a striking difference between tasks administered on a computer monitor and in a large environment, with the former inducing viewer-centered learning and the latter environment-centered learning. Why does environment-centered learning fail on a computer? Here we tested three possibilities: differences in spatial scale, nature of task, and locomotion may influence the reference frame of attention. Participants searched for a target on a monitor placed flat on a stand. On each trial they stood at a different location around the monitor. The target was frequently located in a fixed area of the monitor, but changes in participants’ perspective rendered this area random relative to the participants. Under incidental learning conditions participants failed to acquire environment-centered learning even when (i) the task and display resembled the large-scale task, and (ii) the search task required locomotion. The difficulty in inducing environment-centered learning on a computer underscores the egocentric nature of visual attention. It supports the idea that spatial scale modulates the reference frame of attention.