On the locus of visual selection: Evidence from focused attention tasks.

Early and late selection models of attention disagree about whether visual objects are identified before or after selection, with recent evidence of interference from to- be- ignored stimuli favoring late selection over early selection accounts. However, these tests may not have permitted optimal attentional focusing. In 4 experiments subjects identified an attentionally cued target letter embedded among distractors. Only minimal effects of information appearing in to- be- ignored locations were observed.