On the relationship between spatial and non-spatial attention

Spatial attention orienting is known to enhance the signal in attended location as well as to exclude flanked noise. Moreover, spatial attention orienting is able to modulate the temporal processing, as suggested by the line motion illusion. Non-spatial attention is defined as the processing resources engagement onto the currently relevant object (measured by attentional masking) and processing resources disengagement from the previously relevant object (measured by attentional blink). In the present study we investigated the modulation of the spatial attention orienting on attentional masking. Spatial attention was manipulated by an exogenous (i.e., peripheral and non-informative) cue, while attentional masking was measured as the impaired identification of the first of two rapidly sequential objects. Results showed that, in the attended location, the non-spatial attention engagement on an object seems to occur faster (i.e., reduced attentional masking) than in the unattended location. We suggest that the spatial attention orienting is able to enhance the ability to rapidly engage non-spatial attention over time.