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The Journal of Neuroscience, April 16, 2008, 28(16):4183-4191; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0556-08.2008

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Neural Measures of Individual Differences in Selecting and Tracking Multiple Moving Objects

Trafton Drew and Edward K. Vogel

Psychology Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1227

Correspondence should be addressed to Edward K. Vogel, Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1227. Email: vogel{at}uoregon.edu

Attention can be divided so that multiple objects can be tracked simultaneously as they move among distractors. Although attentional tracking is known to be highly limited, such that most individuals can track only approximately four objects simultaneously, the neurophysiological mechanisms that underlie this capacity limitation have not been established. Here, we provide electrophysiological measures in humans of the initial selection and sustained attention processes that facilitate attentional tracking. Each measure was modulated by the number of objects the subject was tracking and was highly sensitive to each individual's specific tracking capacity. Consequently, these measures provide strong neurophysiological predictors of an individual's attentional tracking capacity. Moreover, by manipulating the difficulty of these two phases of the task, we observe that the limiting factor underlying tracking capacity can flexibly shift between these two attentional mechanisms depending on the requirements of the task.

Key words: attention; event-related potentials; capacity limits; individual differences; cognitive; correlated variability

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Received Oct. 10, 2007; accepted March 6, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Edward K. Vogel, Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1227. Email: vogel{at}uoregon.edu

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K. Fukuda and E. K. Vogel Human Variation in Overriding Attentional Capture J. Neurosci., July 8, 2009; 29(27): 8726 - 8733. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. Drew, A. W. McCollough, T. S. Horowitz, and E. K. Vogel Attentional enhancement during multiple-object tracking Psychon Bull Rev, April 1, 2009; 16(2): 411 - 417. [Abstract] [PDF]

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