Attentional processing of colour and location cues

The aim of the present experiment was to investigate attentional processing of colour and location cues using a detection task. Subjects were required to respond to cued corners of a line drawing of a three-dimensional cube. Both cue and target were highlighted in red or green in one corner of the cube. Cues could be valid or invalid with respect to both the colour and location of subsequent targets. Results indicated a significant main effect of location validity, but no main effect of colour validity. Results also indicated that significant colour cueing effects were evident when location cues were invalid. These data also suggested different time courses for the processing of location and colour information. Location validity effects were largest at the shortest interstimulus interval (ISI) and decreased slightly with increasing ISI. In contrast, colour validity effects were absent at the shortest ISI, but thereafter increased with increasing ISI. The results of this experiment indicate that colour cues can be effective even in an inherently spatial task, provided there is sufficient time for the processing of colour information.