From OpenLearn

Visual Attention

Although we do not see simultaneously everything that surrounds us, we can certainly see more than one thing at a time.

As with hearing, a variety of cues is available to help in directing visual attention. In one situation we use distance to separate objects, in much the same way we use direction in hearing. Visual attention can also be linked to specific objects rather than to general regions of space.

Knowing about unseen information

An obvious difference between hearing and seeing is that the former is extended in time, where the latter extends over space.

Partial report superiority effect - the phenomenon where participants are better able to accurately recall information when they are given instructions to give a partial report.

Iconic memory - the storage for visual memory that allows people to visualize an image after the physical stimuli is no longer present.

Backwards masking - one stimulus (the target is rendered undetectable by the presentation of another (the mask); in backward masking the mask is presented after the target

stimulus onset asynchrony - the time between the onset of target display and the onset of the mask