The Spatial Distribution Of Sustained Dynamic Attention In The Visual Field

With limited cognitive resources,attention allows us to process the things around us more efficiently.Since the distribution of attention in different positions in the visual field is not uniform,it is particularly important to explore the spatial distribution of attention further to understand the brain processing mechanism of spatial information.Most existing visual studies on the spatial distribution of attention use static stimuli.However,in daily life,objects around us are usually moving,which requires us to pay continuous and dynamic attention to these objects.For example,a kindergarten teacher needs to stare at several moving children at the same time.The Multiple Object Tracking Paradigm（MOT）is a classical paradigm simulating the laboratory’s continuous dynamic attention.MOT paradigm is innovatively improved to study the distribution of continuous dynamic attention in the field of vision.It is compared with the distribution of instantaneous attention to exploring the different mechanisms of the two.In order to explore the spatial distribution of attention,this study was specifically divided into two purposes: 1.To explore the influence of stimulus distribution on the overall performance of attention.2.Explore the attention performance of each position in the space under each arrangement distribution mode.The paper includes four parts of research,a total of 21 experiments.Study I（Experiments 1-8）explored the distribution of continuous dynamic attention.Study 2（Experiments 9-16）explored the spatial distribution of immediate attention under the same spatial arrangement of stimuli under dynamic stimuli.Study 3（Experiments17-20）balanced the sensitivity of neurons to central and peripheral visual field stimuli based on study 2.Finally,to compare with previous studies’ results,study 4（Experiment 21）explored the spatial distribution of immediate attention under the static stimulus.This research explores the distribution of continuous dynamic attention in visual field space through four studies and compares it with the distribution of transient attention.The results showed continuous dynamic attention was affected by stimulus distribution,while transient attention was almost unaffected by stimulus distribution.The spatial distribution of continuous dynamic and instantaneous attention is different: both are better in horizontal than vertical directions.However,the centre of immediate attention was better than peripheral attention,while the distribution of continuous attention was more uniform.Transient attention has an advantage in the lower visual field compared with the upper visual field under the static stimulus.However,the distribution of transient attention under dynamic stimulus is the opposite.In a word,the spatial characteristics of continuous dynamic attention are different from those of transient attention,and the spatial characteristics of transient attention under the dynamic stimulus and static stimulus are also different.The innovative MOT paradigm used in this paper provides a new way to study attention under dynamic stimuli.