Todd A. Mondor
Robert J. Zatorre
Dept. of Psychol., McGill Univ., 1205 Ave. Dr. Penfield, Montreal, PQ H3A 1B1, Canada
Montreal Neurological Inst.
Auditory spatial attention was investigated by measuring the relation between azimuthal distance and the time necessary to shift attention. On each trial, listeners determined whether a pure or a complex tone had been presented. Either of these target tones could sound at any of five free-field locations arranged in a semi-circle in front of the listener. This arrangement required that subjects respond to targets presented up to 180 deg from an initial attentional focus. Prior to the target tone, an attentional cue, consisting of a brief noise burst, was presented to the same position as the target. The time interval between the onset of this cue and the onset of the target tone was varied from 50 to 1400 ms to control the amount of time available to orient attention to the cued location. Results indicated that response time decreased as the opportunity to shift attention to the cued position increased. Thus, the cue was successful in effecting an attentional shift. However, performance was unaffected by the spatial extent of the attentional shift. Under these experimental conditions, therefore, the time required to move auditory spatial attention from one location to another appears to be independent of distance.