ABSTRACT
This investigation is an attempt to determine what kinds of information-processing structures attention can operate upon in a selective way to facilitate processing. The three classes of structures considered were pattern identification codes, structures which interrelate patterns, and structures which select levels of processing of a given pattern. Attention was controlled by presenting a cue prior to the display on each trial. The function of a pattern cue was to facilitate processing of that pattern when it appeared in the display. The function of a relation or operation cue was to facilitate selectively either the matching of two digits or the ordering of them. The function of the “levels” cue was to determine whether a pair of letters was to be processed as a unit or as component letters. While evidence has been available in the literature to support the facilitation effect of cueing on pattern identification, only recently have data shown that tasks interrelating patterns can be selectively facilitated by a cue. Efforts to cue effectively the selection of a particular level of processing were unsuccessful in the experiments reported here.
