Day 7 of 150 Speed Difficulty 7/10
Voluntary attention shifts in roughly 100 to 300 milliseconds
Quick answer
Voluntary attention shifts in roughly 100 to 300 milliseconds. Today's question (Posner cuing paradigm) asks about a finding from Posner, M. I. in 1980. The correct option is 100–300 ms — full explanation, primary source, and glossary cross-links below.
Today's question
In Posner's spatial cuing paradigm, a valid central cue speeds reaction time most when the cue-to-target interval is approximately:
Reveal the answer and explanation
Correct: B — 100–300 ms
Posner (1980) measured the time it takes endogenous (voluntary) attention to shift to a cued location. The benefit peaks around 100–300ms — fast enough to catch a target before exogenous reorientation, slow enough for voluntary preparation to take effect. Beyond ~500ms in some variants, "inhibition of return" reverses the cuing benefit, slowing responses to recently attended locations. The paradigm grounds modern attention research.
About the source
Posner, M. I. (1980). Orienting of attention. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32(1), 3–25.
Every Cognition Bible question cites a primary source — a paper, book chapter, or monograph that exists, that we can point to on Google Scholar, and whose finding the question accurately summarizes. No fabricated authority strings, no name-drops without paper-level grounding.
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