Out of Touch? Visual Load Induces Inattentional Numbness

Overview

Journal J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform

Specialty Psychology

Date 2016 Mar 15

PMID 26974412

Citations 7

Authors

Sandra Murphy

Polly Dalton

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

It is now well known that the absence of attention can leave people unaware of both visual and auditory stimuli (e.g., Dalton & Fraenkel, 2012; Mack & Rock, 1998). However, the possibility of similar effects within the tactile domain has received much less research. Here, we introduce a new tactile inattention paradigm and use it to test whether tactile awareness depends on the level of perceptual load in a concurrent visual task. Participants performed a visual search task of either low or high perceptual load, as well as responding to the presence or absence of a brief vibration delivered simultaneously to either the left or the right hand (50% of trials). Detection sensitivity to the clearly noticeable tactile stimulus was reduced under high (vs. low) visual perceptual load. These findings provide the first robust demonstration of "inattentional numbness," as well as demonstrating that this phenomenon can be induced by concurrent visual perceptual load. (PsycINFO Database Record

Citing Articles

Stimulus awareness is associated with secondary somatosensory cortex activation in an inattentional numbness paradigm.

Peters A, Bruchmann M, Dellert T, Moeck R, Schlossmacher I, Straube T Sci Rep. 2023; 13(1):22575.

PMID: 38114726 PMC: 10730535. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-49857-w.

Establishing gaze markers of perceptual load during multi-target visual search.

Harris A, Eayrs J, Lavie N Cogn Res Princ Implic. 2023; 8(1):56.

PMID: 37648839 PMC: 10468466. DOI: 10.1186/s41235-023-00498-7.

Losing your touch? Sustained inattentional numbness for dynamic tactile events.

Murphy S, Dalton P J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 2023; 49(4):566-572.

PMID: 37184939 PMC: 10184653. DOI: 10.1037/xhp0001092.

Visual perceptual load and processing of somatosensory stimuli in primary and secondary somatosensory cortices.

Peters A, Brockhoff L, Bruchmann M, Dellert T, Moeck R, Schlossmacher I Sci Rep. 2023; 13(1):7005.

PMID: 37117254 PMC: 10147921. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-34225-5.

Assessing Perceptual Load and Cognitive Load by Fixation-Related Information of Eye Movements.

Liu J, Li K, Yeh S, Chien S Sensors (Basel). 2022; 22(3).

PMID: 35161930 PMC: 8839381. DOI: 10.3390/s22031187.

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