[Boxbot]

"attention" in this case being an unconscious phenomenon that can but not necessarily lead to conscious awareness.

in the study both the visual cues (possibly misleading) and targets were purportedly presented within the subject's "blind spot". the subject did better than chance at correctly signaling whether a target was presented or not and, additionally, was faster at signaling when the cue was helpful than when it was misleading indicating that attention was being directed to the probable location of the target subconsciously.

in short, it appears that some neurological mechanisms were processing visual cues and directing attention accordingly without any (reported) conscious awareness of the the cues or the targets.

[CapmCrackaWaka]

Ahh the part I missed was that the arrows were in the subjects blind spot too. Very interesting.

[Boxbot]

your original takeaway was correct too =). there were multiple experiments covered by the paper, the earlier ones involving cues that the subject was aware of directing attention into the blind spot, and the later ones dealing with cues and targets both in the blind spot.