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4.2. Results
the stimulus. Certain configurations (e.g., parallel afterimage and
frame orientations) appear to facilitate the effects of attention
while others diminish it (e.g., perpendicular afterimage and frame
orientations). A fuller exploration of what types of stimuli facilitate
attentional influences on rivalry and why is an important area for
future study.
The probability of each of the three possible percepts, over time,
is shown in Fig. 2c. The general pattern of results is similar to that
of Experiments 1 and 2. Percepts congruent with the attended sur-
face were significantly more probable than incongruent percepts
early in the response period (520–910 ms post-cue), and mixed
percepts were significantly less probable than either single-surface
percept for the majority of the response period (although the dif-
ference between mixed and unattended responses was not signif-
icant between 1620 and 3820 ms post-cue). Again, due to the
relative rarity of mixed percepts (only 11.5% of all reported per-
cepts), those responses were excluded from further analysis. As
in the previous experiments, afterimages generally faded from
view well before the end of the response period. Initial responses
consistent with the cued condition were marginally more frequent
(56.88% of trials) than uncued responses (43.13%) (t(7) = 2.11,
p = 0.07).
Participants reported an average of 4.03 dominance periods be-
fore the afterimage faded (SEM = 0.67). As in the previous two
experiments, we performed a 2 Â 3 repeated-measures ANOVA
with factors attention (attended, unattended) and dominance
epoch (1–3). There was a marginally significant main effect of
attention (F(1,6) = 4.80, p = 0.07, g2P = 0.44), but no main effect of
dominance epoch (F(2,5) = 2.43, p = 0.18, g2P = 0.49), and no inter-
action (F(2,5) = 0.16, p = 0.86, g2P = 0.06).
Intriguingly, the significant interaction between stripe orienta-
tion and attention in Experiment 1 is consistent with the possibil-
ity that spatial and feature-based volitional attention could have
independent influences on dominance duration. It is possible that
allocation of attention to an oriented frame involves both spatial
attention to the region and feature-based attention to the orienta-
tion itself. Were that the case, in Experiment 1, parallel trials
would have elicited the allocation of spatial and feature-based
attention to the same surface, while perpendicular trials would eli-
cit spatial attention to one surface and feature-based attention to
its rival. In other words, the results of Experiment 1 could have
been caused by independent, additive effects of spatial and fea-
ture-based attention on dominance duration, which cancelled each
other out in the perpendicular condition. This would be consistent
with existing physiological data showing that spatial and feature-
based attention have additive effects on neural activity (e.g.,
Andersen, Fuchs, & Müller, 2011; Hayden & Gallant, 2005, 2009;
Treue & Martinez-Trujillo, 1999).
Our results also have implications for present theories of per-
ceptual multistability. We demonstrate that dominance durations
in monocular rivalry can be influenced by attention. This parallels
findings from studies of binocular rivalry and ambiguous figure
perception (Chong, Tadin, & Blake, 2005; Meng & Tong, 2004; Ooi
& He, 1999). Indeed, the dominance durations and attentional ef-
fects we report are of similar order of magnitude to those reported
in the binocular rivalry literature (e.g., van Ee, van Dam, & Brouwer,
2005), though this similarity must be interpreted with caution be-
cause of the known dependence of such durations on size, contrast,
and other basic stimulus characteristics that differ across experi-
ments. Our results are consistent with the theory that various
forms of perceptual multistability are driven by a common mech-
anism of alternation. We show that monocular rivalry is affected
by volitional attention in much the same way as binocular rivalry
and ambiguous figure perception, which could mean that attention
is influencing a common mechanism of alternation in all three
instances.
Because our experiments did not include a ‘no attention’ condi-
tion, it is not possible to determine from our results whether the
effects of attention resulted from an enhancement of processing
of the attended stimulus, or from inhibition of processing of the
suppressed stimulus. The attentional effects observed in binocular
rivalry appear to result from enhancement of processing of the at-
tended stimulus, equivalent to an increase in contrast for that
stimulus during periods of dominance (Chong, Tadin, & Blake,
2005). Attention might have a similar effect of increasing the effec-
tive contrast of the attended stimulus during dominance periods in
monocular rivalry, but additional experiments must be performed
to test this empirically.
In summary, we identify a new domain in which volitional
attention modulates the contents of visual experience. Our results
demonstrate that endogenous, volitional factors such as attention
can dramatically influence the perception of stimuli undergoing
monocular rivalry. Thus, we provide new support for the theory
that visual experience can be influenced by volitional attention.
The effect of attention was evident when the data from all dom-
inance epochs (not just the first three) were analyzed. Afterimages
of the stripes matching the attended orientation were seen for
170 ms longer, on average, than afterimages of the stripes match-
ing the unattended orientation (t(7) = 2.61, p = 0.04, two-tailed,
SEM = 65 ms) (see Fig. 3c).
4.3. Discussion
Experiment 3 replicates and extends the findings of the previ-
ous two experiments. Again, attended afterimages are significantly
more likely to be perceived than unattended ones. Experiment 3
demonstrates that this continues to hold true when a feature of
the afterimage itself (orientation) is attended, rather than the bor-
dering outline attended in the previous two experiments. Further-
more, Experiment 3 demonstrates that attention influences rivalry
dominance durations even when the competing stimuli are com-
pletely overlapping. This refutes the hypothesis that areas of
non-overlap are necessary to provide an unambiguous ‘handle’ to
which attention can be directed that might enable filling-in to
ambiguous overlapping regions.
5. General discussion
The results of the three experiments reported here demonstrate
that volitional attention can alter the contents of experience. Spe-
cifically, volitional attention can alter the appearance of overlap-
ping transparent surfaces engaged in monocular rivalry. Attended
surfaces are perceived for longer durations than unattended sur-
faces across a variety of stimulus configurations. The effect is
demonstrable within a single trial, yet quantifiable by averaging
the influence of attention on rivalry dominance period length over
many trials. Attention modulates visual experience whether it is
allocated to surrounding frames or to the orientation of the after-
images. Thus, the results speak strongly in favor of the view that
volitional attention influences the subjective appearance of visual
stimuli engaged in monocular rivalry.
Acknowledgments
The interaction between afterimage and frame orientation in
Experiment 1 demonstrates that the effects of attention on appear-
ance in monocular rivalry can be modulated by the properties of
This work was supported by a grant from the Templeton
Foundation (to P.U.T.), and a National Science Foundation Graduate
Research Program fellowship (to E.A.R.). G.P.C. was supported by