Abstract
The attentional blink (AB) is observed when report accuracy for a second target (T2) is reduced if T2 is presented within approximately 500 ms of a first target (T1), but is relatively unimpaired at longer T1-T2 separations. The AB is thought to represent a transient cost of attending to a target. There are reliable individual differences in AB magnitude. It has been suggested in some models of the AB that cognitive control contributes to the production of the AB, such that greater cognitive control is associated with larger AB magnitudes. Performance monitoring functions are thought to modulate the strength of cognitive control, and those functions are indexed by the event-related potentials in response to both endogenous and exogenous performance evaluation. Here we examine whether individual differences in the amplitudes to internal and external response feedback predict individual AB magnitudes. Electrophysiological responses to externally provided performance feedback, measured in two different tasks, predicted individual differences in AB magnitude such that greater feedback-related N2 amplitude was associated with larger AB magnitudes regardless of the valence of the feedback.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2013