Three experiments investigated the role of target-target perceptual similarity within the attentional blink (AB).Various geometric shapes were Furniture presented in a rapid serial visual presentation task.Targets could have 2, 1, or 0 shared features.
Features included shape and size.The second target was presented after five or six different lags after the first target.The Metal Desk Lamp (1/CN) task was to detect both targets on each trial.
Second-target report accuracy was increased by target-target similarity.This modulation was observed more for mixed-trial design as compared with blocked design.Results are discussed in terms of increased stability of working memory representations and reduced interference for second-target processing.