Li Yang¹, Weiwei Zhang; ¹University of California, Riverside

Attention fluctuates over time, creating moments when critical information is missed, as in the attentional blink (AB). Although physical exertion is common in daily life, little is known about how bodily effort shapes temporal attention. This study therefore examined how concurrent physical exertion influences visual temporal attention. Participants performed an AB task, reporting two targets (T1 and T2) embedded in a rapid serial visual presentation while exerting varied levels of isometric handgrip force. Performance on T2 given correct T1 response (T2|T1) was lower at short intertarget lags (lags 2–4) than at other lags, replicating the AB effect. The Arousal hypothesis proposes that concurrent physical effort can induce arousal, subsequently facilitate perceptual and working memory encoding of the targets, and attenuate AB. Alternatively, the Competition hypothesis proposes that the competition for cognitive control between the concurrent physical exertion and attention re-engagement process of the AB task may amplify AB. Results showed that T2|T1 accuracy in the blink window improved as physical effort increased, with no significant changes at other lags, supporting the arousal hypothesis that physical effort exertion selectively facilitates target processing in temporal attention task.