This study shows that there is a response selection bottleneck, but that visual attention is not affected by the bottleneck.

The task used was a speeded response to a tone and an unspeeded report of a letter. The tone was often responded to after the letter appeared, but there did not seem to be any problems with processing the letter as a result, though response to it was slowed by the proximity of the response to the tone.

Carrier, M., & Pashler, H. (1991). The attention demands of memory retrieval. unpublished manuscript, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla.

Duncan, J. (1984). Selective attention and the organization of visual information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113, 501-517.

Fagot, C., & Pashler, H. (in press). Making two responses to a single object: Implications for the central attentional bottleneck. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.

McCann, R., & Johnston, J.C. (in press). The locus of the single channel bottleneck in dual task interference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.

Osman, A., & Moore, C. (November 1990). Locus of the single-channel bottleneck, paper presented at the Psychonomic Society Meetings, New Orleans.

Pashler, H. (1984). Processing stages in overlapping tasks: Evidence for a central bottleneck. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 10, 358-377.

Pashler, H. (1989). Dissociations and dependencies between speed and accuracy: Evidence for a two-component theory of divided attention in simple tasks. Cognitive Psychology, 21, 469-514.

Pashler, H. (1991). Shifting visual attention and selecting motor responses: Distinct attentional mechanisms. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 17, 1023-1040.

Pashler, H., & Christian, C. (1991). Dual-task interference and the production of motor responses, unpublished manuscript. University of California-San Diego, La Jolla.

Pashler, H., & Johnston, J.C. (1989). Interference between temporally overlapping tasks: Chronometric evidence for central postponement with or without response grouping. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 41A, 19-45.

Pashler, H., Luck, S., Hillyard, S., Mangus, R., Gazzaniga, M., & O'Brien, S. Sequential operation of the cerebral hemispheres in "split-brain" patients, unpublished manuscript. University of California-San Diego, La Jolla (1991).

Posner, M., Inhof, A., Friedrich, F., & Cohen, A. (1987). Isolating attentional systems: A cognitive-anatomical analysis. Psychobiology, 15, 107-121.

Smith, M.C. (1967). Theories of the psychological refractory period. Psychological Bulletin, 67, 202-213.

Welford, A.T. (1952). The "psychological refractory period" and the timing of high speed performance - A review and a theory. British Journal of Psychology, 43, 2-19.

13-Mar-2003