Object-based attention

Object-based attention refers to the relationship between an ‘object’ representation and a person’s visually stimulated, selective attention, as opposed to a relationship involving either a spatial or a feature representation; although these types of selective attention are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Research into object-based attention suggests that attention improves the quality of the sensory representation of a selected object, and results in the enhanced processing of that object’s features.

The concept of an ‘object’, apropos object-based attention, entails more than a physical thing that can be seen and touched. It includes a perceptual unit or group, namely, elements in a visual field (stimuli) organised coherently by Gestalt factors such as collinearity, closure, and symmetry.