marlene behrmann - spatial vs. object based attention

In this first part of her interview with goCognitive, Dr. Marlene Behrmann of Carnegie Mellon University provides an overview of some central aspects of visual attention. She explains top-down and bottom-up (stimulus driven) forms of attention and then focuses on the difference between attention tied to a particular location in space (spatial attention) with attention tied to a particular object within a scene (object-based attention). In the two following parts of the interview she addresses two different types of "breakdowns" of visual processing for two kinds of patients - spatial hemineglect patients and prosopagnostics (face-blind patients). The interview was conducted at the studio of WQED in Pittsburgh by Cynthia Peng, an undergraduate student at CMU.