Object-based attention guided by an invisible object

Evidence for object-based attention typically comes from studies using displays with visible objects, and little is known about whether object-based attention can occur with invisible objects. We investigated this issue with a modified double-rectangle cuing paradigm, which was originally developed by Egly et al. (J Exp Psychol Gen 123:161–177, 1994). In this study, low-contrast rectangles were presented very briefly, which rendered them invisible to subjects. With the invisible rectangles, we found a classical object-based attentional effect as indexed by the same-object effect. We also found the instantaneous object effect—object-based attention was dependent on the orientation of the rectangles presented with the target, providing evidence for the dynamic updating hypothesis (Ho and Yeh in Acta Psychol 132:31–39, 2009). These results suggest that object-based attention can be guided by an invisible object in an automatic way, with a minimal influence from high-level top-down control.