There have been conflicting findings on the degree to which rapidly deployed visual attention is selective for depth, and this issue has important implications for attention models. Previous findings have attempted to find depth-based cueing effects on such attention using reaction time (RT) measures for stimuli presented in stereo goggles with a display screen. Results stemming from such approaches have been mixed, depending on whether target/distractor discrimination was required. To help clarify the existence of such depth effects, we have developed a paradigm that measures accuracy rather than RT in an immersive virtual-reality environment, providing a more appropriate context of depth. Three modified Posner Cueing paradigms were run to test for depth-specific rapid attentional selectivity. Participants fixated a cross while attempting to identify a rapidly masked black letter preceded by a red cue that could be valid in depth, side, or both. In Experiment 1a, a potent cueing effect was found for lateral cueing validity, but a weak effect was found for depth despite an extreme difference in virtual depth (1 vs. 300 m). In Experiment 1b, a near-replication of 1a, the lateral effect replicated while the depth effect did not. Finally, in Experiment 2, to increase the depth cue’s effectiveness, the letter matched the cue’s color, and the presentation duration was increased; however, again only a minimal depth-based cueing effect – no greater than that of Experiment 1a – was observed. Thus, we conclude that rapidly deployed attention is driven largely by spatiotopic rather than depth-based information.

关于快速部署的视觉注意力对深度的选择性程度，存在相互矛盾的发现，这个问题对注意力模型具有重要意义。先前的研究结果试图通过对带有显示屏的立体护目镜中呈现的刺激的反应时间 (RT) 测量来找到对这种注意力的基于深度的提示效应。这些方法产生的结果好坏参半，这取决于是否需要区分目标/干扰因素。为了帮助澄清这种深度效应的存在，我们开发了一种范式，在沉浸式虚拟现实环境中测量准确性而不是 RT，提供更合适的深度环境。运行三个修改后的 Posner Cueing 范式以测试特定于深度的快速注意力选择性。参与者注视着一个十字，同时试图识别一个快速蒙面的黑色字母，前面有一个红色提示，可能在深度、侧面或两者上都有效。在实验 1a 中，发现了横向提示有效性的有效提示效应，但尽管虚拟深度存在极大差异（1 对 300 m），但深度效应却很弱。在实验 1b 中，1a 的近似复制，横向效应复制，而深度效应没有。最后，在实验二中，为了提高深度提示的有效性，字母与提示的颜色相匹配，并增加了呈现时间；然而，再次只观察到最小的基于深度的提示效果——不大于实验 1a 的效果。因此，我们得出结论，快速部署的注意力主要是由空间主题而不是基于深度的信息驱动的。