Visual temporal attention from perception to computation

Visual attention unfolds across space and time to prioritize a subset of incoming visual information. Distinct in key ways from spatial attention, temporal attention is a growing research area with its own conceptual and mechanistic territory. Here I review key conceptual issues, data and models in the field of visual temporal attention, with an emphasis on voluntary temporal attention. I first situate voluntary temporal attention in the broader domains of temporal attention and attentional dynamics, with the goal of organizing concepts and findings related to dynamic attention. Next, I review findings that voluntary temporal attention affects visual perception in a selective fashion — prioritizing certain time points at the expense of other time points. Selectivity is a hallmark of attention and implies a limitation in computational resources that prevents sustained maximal processing of all time points. I discuss a computational model of temporal attention that captures limited resources across time and review other models of attentional dynamics. Finally, I discuss productive future directions for the study of temporal attention.