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Effect of Attention in Peripheral Vision

Abstract

IN my communication of March 4, I spoke of placing objects on a table. As Mr. Thomson has deduced, the situation I described was static, and thus change, which is, broadly speaking, one of the essential conditions for perception, was lacking. Mr. Thomson's observations with the second-hand of a watch and a compass needle are very interesting but puzzle me, for I have failed to find what he describes. Others as well as myself have found that objects in motion do not disappear; though one correspondent has spoken of ‘flicker’, seen peripherally, disappearing when attended to.

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SMITH, B. Effect of Attention in Peripheral Vision. Nature 191, 732–733 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/191732b0

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