Categorical similarity modulates temporal integration in the attentional blink.

Attentional blink (AB) speaks to a phenomenon that, when reporting two targets in a rapid serial visual presentation, the second target (T2) is often missed if it followed the first target (T1) within an interval of less than 500 ms. An interesting exception is the preserved performance of T2 at Lag 1 position (Lag-1 sparing), or even in an extended period, which recently has been termed temporal integration. Both T1 and T2 can be successfully reported but with a loss of their temporal order. The integration has been attributed to the temporal distance between the two targets. However, previous studies on temporal perception have revealed that similarity between two stimuli modulated their temporal order judgment, suggesting that temporal integration is affected by stimulus characteristics. In the present study, we investigated whether stimulus characteristics modulated temporal integration in the AB. We manipulated the categorical similarity between T1 and T2 targets and found that the order reversals were significantly higher in the same-category condition than that in the different-category condition. Our results thus provided clear evidence for the contribution of categorical similarity to the temporal integration in the AB.