Figure 4 shows average reaction time for a group of participants, comparing congruent and incongruent trials. Participants were, on average, about 200 ms faster to respond in congruent trials. This shows the advantages associated with the location where one attends and the costs to other locations. The arrow gave participants 80% reliable information about where the letter would appear in each trial, so participants directed visual attention to the positions pointed to by the arrow. When the letter then

Since it was introduced in the late 1970s, the spatial-cueing task has been used widely by researchers, for example, in order to identify the kinds of stimuli that might automatically cause attention to shift. For example, researchers have investigated whether bright flashes and loud sounds automatically cause attention to shift. In these experiments the letters that need to be identified are sometimes preceded by unexpected lights and sounds. Researchers can then compare detection speeds when a bright flash, for instanc