Colloquium: To be (broad) or not to be (broad)

Focused visual attention is a mechanism by which relevant visual information is selectively prioritised for further processing. Given this vital role, focused attention is essential for the efficient visual perception of a world that is not only richly varied, but also continually changing. Great strides have been made in understanding the shifting of focused attention from one object or location to another, but relatively little is known about an independent and equally critical component of attentional control – attentional focusing.

The term attentional focusing refers to the fact that the focus of attention flexibly expands and contracts in spatial extent to encompass larger or smaller objects or regions of space. Despite the relative lack of research on focusing, it profoundly affects many aspects of visual perception and has substantial ramifications for cognition. In this seminar, I will present data on three inter-related aspects of attentional focusing: the spatiotemporal dynamics of focusing, object representations and their role in focusing, and the consequences of focusing on visual processing.