Perceptual inertia: spatial attention and warning foreperiod?

Perceptual inertia refers to a potential explanation for the observation that during a short period after stimulus onset, the visual system is insensitive to discriminatory detail. The present study attempted to replicate this empirical result in a simple one-item letter-identification task. The results provided little if any support for the construct of perceptual inertia. In the five experiments reported, evidence consistent with perceptual inertia was only obtained in Experiment 5. However, the Experiment 5 results can at least equally parsimoniously be explained in terms of two standard explanatory factors: an effect of precuing of the target position (selective attention) and foreperiod duration (general preparation).