In experiment 4, we found that people appear to have a small, asymmetric area of attentional focus around their avatar as they moved; they were most likely to detect an unexpected object that appeared nearby and in front of them, directly in their path of motion; less likely to detect nearby objects that appeared behind them and faraway objects that appeared in front of them, and less likely still to detect objects that appeared far behind them.
In this follow-up experiment, we will probe attention for the area immediately around the player. Rather than near/far, we will now look at above/below probes; objects above the player pose an immediate threat, but objects below no longer need to be attended to. This experiment will reveal if attention is allocated accordingly.