Anne Treisman (1935-2018) was one of the most influential attention researchers, known for her early filter theory of attention and especially for feature integration theory (FIT), which explained how the visual system combines individual features (color, shape, orientation) into unified object percepts. Her elegant experimental paradigms and theoretical clarity set the standard for attention research for decades.
Feature Integration Theory
FIT (1980) proposed that visual features are initially registered in parallel across the visual field by specialized feature maps (one for color, one for orientation, etc.), but that binding these features into integrated object representations (perceiving a red vertical bar as a single object) requires focused spatial attention. This explained why visual search for a feature (red among green) is fast and parallel ("pop out"), while search for a conjunction of features (red vertical among red horizontal and green vertical) is slow and serial — it requires attention to visit each location and bind features together.
Before FIT, Treisman made fundamental contributions to auditory attention. Her attenuation model (1964) proposed that unattended information is not completely blocked (as Broadbent's filter theory suggested) but is attenuated — reduced in processing intensity. This explained how important information (like hearing one's own name) can break through from the unattended channel. The attenuation model provided a more flexible and realistic account of selective attention than the all-or-none filter model. Throughout her career, Treisman combined theoretical elegance with experimental ingenuity.