Interaction of simultaneous visual events

Five experiments are reported in which a perceptual interaction between simultaneous brief events was investigated. Subjects judged whether a briefly presented stimulus was flickering or not. Performance was much more error prone when a similar unattended stimulus was presented at a relatively remote position in the visual field, thus confirming previous findings. Interference was obtained for stimuli presented both peripherally and centrally in the visual field. The effect was not confined to large stimuli, but the larger the interfering stimulus the greater the effect it had. Events in the auditory modality interfered with judgements made in the visual modality. Possible mechanisms for the interaction are discussed.