从知觉负载理论来理解选择性注意

知觉负载理论被认为解决了选择性注意研究的早选择和晚选择观点之争。当前任务对注意资源的耗用程度决定了与任务无关的干扰刺激得到多少加工，从而导致在低知觉负载下，注意资源自动溢出去加工干扰刺激（晚选择），而在高知觉负载下，注意资源被当前任务耗尽而无法加工干扰刺激（早选择）。知觉负载理论提出后，研究者进行了一系列研究。一部分工作专注于知觉负载对选择性注意的调节作用；另外一些工作则关注其他认知过程如何影响注意资源的分配，其中知觉负载与工作记忆负载的关系是当前关注重点。

The Perceptual Load Theory and Selective Attention

It is considered that the perceptual load theory proposed by Lavie resolves the conflict between early and late selection models in the study of selective attention. According to this theory, to what extent the task-irrelevant stimuli are processed is determined by whether there are spare attentional resources left when they are used to process the task-relevant stimuli. If the current task has high perceptual load and exhausts all the attentional resources, there will be no spare resources left to process distractors; if, however, the current task has low perceptual load and uses only a proportion of attentional resources, the spared resources will automatically spread to distractors, their processing causing interference. This paper reviewed studies that investigate the impact of perceptual load on selective attention, and studies that examine the interaction between the distribution of attentional resources and other cognitive processes or factors, such as working memory load.