This special issue of Visual Cognition features empirical and theoretical contributions by leading research scholars in the field. The volume begins with a general introduction and an authoritative review of work on spatial attention in the flankers task. Next, a series of empirical articles reports important new findings on visual selection by spatial location. A second section contrasts by presenting recent empirical findings on visual selection by other criteria. Finally, four articles present major theoretical statements on aspects of visual attention. As a whole, the issue forms a substantial contribution to the literature on visual selective attention.