On the value-dependence of value-driven attentional capture.

PubMed

Anderson, Brian A; Halpern, Madeline

2017-05-01

Findings from an increasingly large number of studies have been used to argue that attentional capture can be dependent on the learned value of a stimulus, or value-driven. However, under certain circumstances attention can be biased to select stimuli that previously served as targets, independent of reward history. Value-driven attentional capture, as studied using the training phase-test phase design introduced by Anderson and colleagues, is widely presumed to reflect the combined influence of learned value and selection history. However, the degree to which attentional capture is at all dependent on value learning in this paradigm has recently been questioned. Support for value-dependence can be provided through one of two means: (1) greater attentional capture by prior targets following rewarded training than following unrewarded training, and (2) greater attentional capture by prior targets previously associated with high compared to low value. Using a variant of the original value-driven attentional capture paradigm, Sha and Jiang (Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 78, 403-414, 2016) failed to find evidence of either, and raised criticisms regarding the adequacy of evidence provided by prior studies using this particular paradigm. To address this disparity, here we provided a stringent test of the value-dependence hypothesis using the traditional value-driven attentional capture paradigm. With a sufficiently large sample size, value-dependence was observed based on both criteria, with no evidence of attentional capture without rewards during training. Our findings support the validity of the traditional value-driven attentional capture paradigm in measuring what its name purports to measure.

Capturing attention is not that simple: different mechanisms for stimulus-driven and contingent capture.

PubMed

Liao, Hsin-I; Yeh, Su-Ling

2013-11-01

Attentional orienting can be involuntarily directed to task-irrelevant stimuli, but it remains unsolved whether such attentional capture is contingent on top-down settings or could be purely stimulus-driven. We propose that attentional capture depends on the stimulus property because transient and static features are processed differently; thus, they might be modulated differently by top-down controls. To test this hybrid account, we adopted a spatial cuing paradigm in which a noninformative onset or color cue preceded an onset or color target with various stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). Results showed that the onset cue captured attention regardless of target type at short-but not long-SOAs. In contrast, the color cue captured attention at short and long SOAs, but only with a color target. The overall pattern of results corroborates our hypothesis, suggesting that different mechanisms are at work for stimulus-driven capture (by onset) and contingent capture (by color). Stimulus-driven capture elicits reflexive involuntary orienting, and contingent capture elicits voluntary feature-based enhancement.

Reducing attentional capture of emotion by broadening attention: increased global attention reduces early electrophysiological responses to negative stimuli.

PubMed

Gable, Philip A; Harmon-Jones, Eddie

2012-05-01

Decades of research has shown the influence of emotion on attentional capture, and more recently, the influence of emotion on neurophysiological processes related to attentional capture. The current research tested whether some of the earliest neurophysiological underpinnings of emotive attentional processes can be influenced by attentional manipulations of broadening versus narrowing. Previous research has shown that negative affects high in motivational intensity (e.g., disgust, fear) cause a relative narrowing of attentional scope (Gable and Harmon-Jones, 2010a; Easterbrook, 1959). Because of the strong link between motivation and attention, attentional scope should also influence the attentional capture of negative stimuli. The current study manipulated a local attentional scope or global attentional scope, then measured attentional capture towards disgust and neutral pictures using the N1 event-related potential component. Results revealed that a manipulated global attentional scope reduced N1 amplitude towards disgust pictures compared to a manipulated local attentional scope. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Self-Assessment Stereo Capture Model Applicable to the Internet of Things

PubMed Central

Lin, Yancong; Yang, Jiachen; Lv, Zhihan; Wei, Wei; Song, Houbing

2015-01-01

The realization of the Internet of Things greatly depends on the information communication among physical terminal devices and informationalized platforms, such as smart sensors, embedded systems and intelligent networks. Playing an important role in information acquisition, sensors for stereo capture have gained extensive attention in various fields. In this paper, we concentrate on promoting such sensors in an intelligent system with self-assessment capability to deal with the distortion and impairment in long-distance shooting applications. The core design is the establishment of the objective evaluation criteria that can reliably predict shooting quality with different camera configurations. Two types of stereo capture systems—toed-in camera configuration and parallel camera configuration—are taken into consideration respectively. The experimental results show that the proposed evaluation criteria can effectively predict the visual perception of stereo capture quality for long-distance shooting. PMID:26308004

Individual Differences in Recovery Time From Attentional Capture

PubMed Central

Fukuda, Keisuke; Vogel, Edward K.

2015-01-01

Working memory capacity reflects a core ability of the individual that affects performance on many cognitive tasks. Recent work has suggested that an important covariate of memory capacity is attentional control, and specifically that low-capacity individuals are more susceptible to attentional capture by distractors than high-capacity individuals are, with the latter being able to resist capture. Here, we tested an alternative account according to which all individuals are equally susceptible to attentional capture, but high-capacity individuals recover more quickly than low-capacity individuals. Using psychophysical and electrophysiological methods, we measured recovery time from attentional capture. In two experiments, we found that high- and low-capacity individuals showed equivalent attentional capture effects in the initial moments following capture, but that low-capacity individuals took much longer to recover than high-capacity individuals did. These results suggest that the poor attentional control associated with low capacity is due to slow disengagement from distractors. PMID:21310945

Individual differences in working memory capacity predict learned control over attentional capture.

PubMed

Robison, Matthew K; Unsworth, Nash

2017-11-01

Although individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) typically predict susceptibility to attentional capture in various paradigms (e.g., Stroop, antisaccade, flankers), it sometimes fails to correlate with the magnitude of attentional capture effects in visual search (e.g., Stokes, 2016), which is 1 of the most frequently studied tasks to study capture (Theeuwes, 2010). But some studies have shown that search modes can mitigate the effects of attentional capture (Leber & Egeth, 2006). Therefore, the present study examined whether or not the relationship between WMC and attentional capture changes as a function of the search modes available. In Experiment 1, WMC was unrelated to attentional capture, but only 1 search mode (singleton-detection) could be employed. In Experiment 2, greater WMC predicted smaller attentional capture effects, but only when multiple search modes (feature-search and singleton-detection) could be employed. Importantly this relationship was entirely independent of variation in attention control, which suggests that this effect is driven by WMC-related long-term memory differences (Cosman & Vecera, 2013a, 2013b). The present set of findings help to further our understanding of the nuanced ways in which memory and attention interact. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Attentional capture and engagement during the attentional blink: A "camera" metaphor of attention.

PubMed

Zivony, Alon; Lamy, Dominique

2016-11-01

Identification of a target is impaired when it follows a previous target within 500 ms, suggesting that our attentional system suffers from severe temporal limitations. Although control-disruption theories posit that such impairment, known as the attentional blink (AB), reflects a difficulty in matching incoming information with the current attentional set, disrupted-engagement theories propose that it reflects a delay in later processes leading to transient enhancement of potential targets. Here, we used a variant of the contingent-capture rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm (Folk, Ester, & Troemel, 2009) to adjudicate these competing accounts. Our results show that a salient distractor that shares the target color captures attention to the same extent whether it appears within or outside the blink, thereby invalidating the notion that control over the attentional set is compromised during the blink. In addition, our results show that during the blink, not the attention-capturing object itself but the item immediately following it, is selected, indicating that the AB manifests as a delay between attentional capture and attentional engagement. We therefore conclude that attentional capture and attentional engagement can be dissociated as separate stages of attentional selection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Attentional capture under high perceptual load.

PubMed

Cosman, Joshua D; Vecera, Shaun P

2010-12-01

Attentional capture by abrupt onsets can be modulated by several factors, including the complexity, or perceptual load, of a scene. We have recently demonstrated that observers are less likely to be captured by abruptly appearing, task-irrelevant stimuli when they perform a search that is high, as opposed to low, in perceptual load (Cosman & Vecera, 2009), consistent with perceptual load theory. However, recent results indicate that onset frequency can influence stimulus-driven capture, with infrequent onsets capturing attention more often than did frequent onsets. Importantly, in our previous task, an abrupt onset was present on every trial, and consequently, attentional capture might have been affected by both onset frequency and perceptual load. In the present experiment, we examined whether onset frequency influences attentional capture under conditions of high perceptual load. When onsets were presented frequently, we replicated our earlier results; attentional capture by onsets was modulated under conditions of high perceptual load. Importantly, however, when onsets were presented infrequently, we observed robust capture effects. These results conflict with a strong form of load theory and, instead, suggest that exposure to the elements of a task (e.g., abrupt onsets) combines with high perceptual load to modulate attentional capture by task-irrelevant information.

Succession planning and leadership development: critical business strategies for healthcare organizations.

PubMed

Collins, Sandra K; Collins, Kevin S

2007-01-01

As labor shortages intensify, succession planning and leadership development have become strategic initiatives requiring rigorous consideration. Traditional methods of replacing personnel will not accommodate the vacancies expected to plague healthcare organizations. Managers should focus on identifying potential gaps of key personnel and adapting programs to accommodate organizational need. Attention should be placed on capturing the intellectual capital existent in the organization and developing diverse groups of leadership candidates.

Attentional capture in visual search: Capture and post-capture dynamics revealed by EEG.

PubMed

Liesefeld, Heinrich René; Liesefeld, Anna Marie; Töllner, Thomas; Müller, Hermann J

2017-08-01

Sometimes, salient-but-irrelevant objects (distractors) presented concurrently with a search target cannot be ignored and attention is involuntarily allocated towards the distractor first. Several studies have provided electrophysiological evidence for involuntary misallocations of attention towards a distractor, but much less is known about the mechanisms that are needed to overcome a misallocation and re-allocate attention towards the concurrently presented target. In our study, electrophysiological markers of attentional mechanisms indicate that (i) the distractor captures attention before the target is attended, (ii) a misallocation of attention is terminated actively (instead of attention fading passively), and (iii) the misallocation of attention towards a distractor delays the attention allocation towards the target (rather than just delaying some post-attentive process involved in response selection). This provides the most complete demonstration, to date, of the chain of attentional mechanisms that are evoked when attention is misguided and recovers from capture within a search display. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Attentional Capture by Emotional Stimuli Is Modulated by Semantic Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Yang-Ming; Baddeley, Alan; Young, Andrew W.

2008-01-01

The attentional blink paradigm was used to examine whether emotional stimuli always capture attention. The processing requirement for emotional stimuli in a rapid sequential visual presentation stream was manipulated to investigate the circumstances under which emotional distractors capture attention, as reflected in an enhanced attentional blink…

The problem of latent attentional capture: Easy visual search conceals capture by task-irrelevant abrupt onsets.

PubMed

Gaspelin, Nicholas; Ruthruff, Eric; Lien, Mei-Ching

2016-08-01

Researchers are sharply divided regarding whether irrelevant abrupt onsets capture spatial attention. Numerous studies report that they do and a roughly equal number report that they do not. This puzzle has inspired numerous attempts at reconciliation, none gaining general acceptance. The authors propose that abrupt onsets routinely capture attention, but the size of observed capture effects depends critically on how long attention dwells on distractor items which, in turn, depends critically on search difficulty. In a series of spatial cuing experiments, the authors show that irrelevant abrupt onsets produce robust capture effects when visual search is difficult, but not when search is easy. Critically, this effect occurs even when search difficulty varies randomly across trials, preventing any strategic adjustments of the attentional set that could modulate probability of capture by the onset cue. The authors argue that easy visual search provides an insensitive test for stimulus-driven capture by abrupt onsets: even though onsets truly capture attention, the effects of capture can be latent. This observation helps to explain previous failures to find capture by onsets, nearly all of which used an easy visual search. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

The Problem of Latent Attentional Capture: Easy Visual Search Conceals Capture by Task-Irrelevant Abrupt Onsets

PubMed Central

Gaspelin, Nicholas; Ruthruff, Eric; Lien, Mei-Ching

2016-01-01

Researchers are sharply divided regarding whether irrelevant abrupt onsets capture spatial attention. Numerous studies report that they do and a roughly equal number report that they do not. This puzzle has inspired numerous attempts at reconciliation, none gaining general acceptance. We propose that abrupt onsets routinely capture attention, but the size of observed capture effects depends critically on how long attention dwells on distractor items which, in turn, depends critically on search difficulty. In a series of spatial cuing experiments, we show that irrelevant abrupt onsets produce robust capture effects when visual search is difficult, but not when search is easy. Critically, this effect occurs even when search difficulty varies randomly across trials, preventing any strategic adjustments of the attentional set that could modulate probability of capture by the onset cue. We argue that easy visual search provides an insensitive test for stimulus-driven capture by abrupt onsets: even though onsets truly capture attention, the effects of capture can be latent. This observation helps to explain previous failures to find capture by onsets, nearly all of which employed an easy visual search. PMID:26854530

An effective attentional set for a specific colour does not prevent capture by infrequently presented motion distractors.

PubMed

Retell, James D; Becker, Stefanie I; Remington, Roger W

2016-01-01

An organism's survival depends on the ability to rapidly orient attention to unanticipated events in the world. Yet, the conditions needed to elicit such involuntary capture remain in doubt. Especially puzzling are spatial cueing experiments, which have consistently shown that involuntary shifts of attention to highly salient distractors are not determined by stimulus properties, but instead are contingent on attentional control settings induced by task demands. Do we always need to be set for an event to be captured by it, or is there a class of events that draw attention involuntarily even when unconnected to task goals? Recent results suggest that a task-irrelevant event will capture attention on first presentation, suggesting that salient stimuli that violate contextual expectations might automatically capture attention. Here, we investigated the role of contextual expectation by examining whether an irrelevant motion cue that was presented only rarely (∼3-6% of trials) would capture attention when observers had an active set for a specific target colour. The motion cue had no effect when presented frequently, but when rare produced a pattern of interference consistent with attentional capture. The critical dependence on the frequency with which the irrelevant motion singleton was presented is consistent with early theories of involuntary orienting to novel stimuli. We suggest that attention will be captured by salient stimuli that violate expectations, whereas top-down goals appear to modulate capture by stimuli that broadly conform to contextual expectations.

New objects do not capture attention without a sensory transient.

PubMed

Hollingworth, Andrew; Simons, Daniel J; Franconeri, Steven L

2010-07-01

Attention capture occurs when a stimulus event involuntarily recruits attention. The abrupt appearance of a new object is perhaps the most well-studied attention-capturing event, yet there is debate over the root cause of this capture. Does a new object capture attention because it involves the creation of a new object representation or because its appearance creates a characteristic luminance transient? The present study sought to resolve this question by introducing a new object into a search display, either with or without a unique luminance transient. Contrary to the results of a recent study (Davoli, Suszko, & Abrams, 2007), when the new object's transient was masked by a brief interstimulus interval introduced between the placeholder and search arrays, a new object did not capture attention. Moreover, when a new object's transient was masked, participants could not locate a new object efficiently even when that was their explicit goal. Together, these data suggest that luminance transient signals are necessary for attention capture by new objects.

Exogenous attentional capture by subliminal abrupt-onset cues: evidence from contrast-polarity independent cueing effects.

PubMed

Fuchs, Isabella; Theeuwes, Jan; Ansorge, Ulrich

2013-08-01

In the present study, we tested whether subliminal abrupt-onset cues capture attention in a bottom-up or top-down controlled manner. For our tests, we varied the searched-for target-contrast polarity (i.e., dark or light targets against a gray background) over four experiments. In line with the bottom-up hypothesis, our results indicate that subliminal-onset cues capture attention independently of the searched-for target-contrast polarity (Experiment 1), and this effect is not stronger for targets that matched the searched-for target-contrast polarity (Experiment 2). In fact, even to-be-ignored cues associated with a no-go response captured attention in a salience-driven way (Experiment 3). For supraliminal cues, we found attentional capture only by cues with a matching contrast polarity, reflecting contingent capture (Experiment 4). The results point toward a specific role of subliminal abrupt onsets for attentional capture. 2013 APA, all rights reserved

Broken Expectations: Violation of Expectancies, Not Novelty, Captures Auditory Attention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vachon, Francois; Hughes, Robert W.; Jones, Dylan M.

2012-01-01

The role of memory in behavioral distraction by auditory attentional capture was investigated: We examined whether capture is a product of the novelty of the capturing event (i.e., the absence of a recent memory for the event) or its violation of learned expectancies on the basis of a memory for an event structure. Attentional capture--indicated…

The relationship between action-effect monitoring and attention capture.

PubMed

Kumar, Neeraj; Manjaly, Jaison A; Sunny, Meera Mary

2015-02-01

Many recent findings suggest that stimuli that are perceived to be the consequence of one's own actions are processed with priority. According to the preactivation account of intentional binding, predicted consequences are preactivated and hence receive a temporal advantage in processing. The implications of the preactivation account are important for theories of attention capture, as temporal advantage often translates to attention capture. Hence, action might modulate attention capture by feature singletons. Experiment 1 showed that a motion onset and color change captured attention only when it was preceded by an action. Experiment 2 showed that the capture occurs only with predictable, but not with unpredictable, consequences of action. Experiment 3 showed that even when half the display changed color at display transition, they were all prioritized. The results suggest that action modulates attentional control.

Size matters: large objects capture attention in visual search.

PubMed

Proulx, Michael J

2010-12-23

Can objects or events ever capture one's attention in a purely stimulus-driven manner? A recent review of the literature set out the criteria required to find stimulus-driven attentional capture independent of goal-directed influences, and concluded that no published study has satisfied that criteria. Here visual search experiments assessed whether an irrelevantly large object can capture attention. Capture of attention by this static visual feature was found. The results suggest that a large object can indeed capture attention in a stimulus-driven manner and independent of displaywide features of the task that might encourage a goal-directed bias for large items. It is concluded that these results are either consistent with the stimulus-driven criteria published previously or alternatively consistent with a flexible, goal-directed mechanism of saliency detection.

Immunity to Attentional Capture at Ignored Locations

PubMed Central

Ruthruff, Eric; Gaspelin, Nicholas

2017-01-01

Certain stimuli have the power to rapidly and involuntarily capture spatial attention against our will. The present study investigated whether such stimuli capture spatial attention even when they appear in ignored regions of visual space. In other words, which force is more powerful: attentional capture or spatial filtering? Participants performed a spatial cuing task, searching for a letter target defined by color (e.g., green) and then reporting that letter’s identity. Two of the four search locations were always irrelevant. Unlike many previous experiments, participants were forced to ignore these locations because they always contained a target-colored distractor letter. Experiment 1 assessed capture by a salient-but-irrelevant abrupt onset cue appearing 150 ms before the search display. One might expect onset cues to capture attention even at ignored locations given that the main function of capture, presumably, is to rapidly alert observers to unexpected yet potentially important stimuli. However, they did not. Experiment 2 replicated this result with a different neutral baseline condition. Experiment 3 replicated the absence of capture effects at ignored locations with an even more potent stimulus: a relevant cue possessing the target color. We propose that people are effectively immune to attentional capture by objects in ignored locations – spatial filtering dominates attentional capture. PMID:29116615

Capture by colour: evidence for dimension-specific singleton capture.

PubMed

Harris, Anthony M; Becker, Stefanie I; Remington, Roger W

2015-10-01

Previous work on attentional capture has shown the attentional system to be quite flexible in the stimulus properties it can be set to respond to. Several different attentional "modes" have been identified. Feature search mode allows attention to be set for specific features of a target (e.g., red). Singleton detection mode sets attention to respond to any discrepant item ("singleton") in the display. Relational search sets attention for the relative properties of the target in relation to the distractors (e.g., redder, larger). Recently, a new attentional mode was proposed that sets attention to respond to any singleton within a particular feature dimension (e.g., colour; Folk & Anderson, 2010). We tested this proposal against the predictions of previously established attentional modes. In a spatial cueing paradigm, participants searched for a colour target that was randomly either red or green. The nature of the attentional control setting was probed by presenting an irrelevant singleton cue prior to the target display and assessing whether it attracted attention. In all experiments, the cues were red, green, blue, or a white stimulus rapidly rotated (motion cue). The results of three experiments support the existence of a "colour singleton set," finding that all colour cues captured attention strongly, while motion cues captured attention only weakly or not at all. Notably, we also found that capture by motion cues in search for colour targets was moderated by their frequency; rare motion cues captured attention (weakly), while frequent motion cues did not.

Active suppression after involuntary capture of attention.

PubMed

Sawaki, Risa; Luck, Steven J

2013-04-01

After attention has been involuntarily captured by a distractor, how is it reoriented toward a target? One possibility is that attention to the distractor passively fades over time, allowing the target to become attended. Another possibility is that the captured location is actively suppressed so that attention can be directed toward the target location. The present study investigated this issue with event-related potentials (ERPs), focusing on the N2pc component (a neural measure of attentional deployment) and the Pd component (a neural measure of attentional suppression). Observers identified a color-defined target in a search array, which was preceded by a task-irrelevant cue array. When the cue array contained an item that matched the target color, this item captured attention (as measured both behaviorally and with the N2pc component). This capture of attention was followed by active suppression (indexed by the Pd component), and this was then followed by a reorienting of attention toward the target in the search array (indexed by the N2pc component). These findings indicate that the involuntary capture of attention by a distractor is followed by an active suppression process that presumably facilitates the subsequent voluntary orienting of attention to the target.

Perceptual Learning Induces Persistent Attentional Capture by Nonsalient Shapes.

PubMed

Qu, Zhe; Hillyard, Steven A; Ding, Yulong

2017-02-01

Visual attention can be attracted automatically by salient simple features, but whether and how nonsalient complex stimuli such as shapes may capture attention in humans remains unclear. Here, we present strong electrophysiological evidence that a nonsalient shape presented among similar shapes can provoke a robust and persistent capture of attention as a consequence of extensive training in visual search (VS) for that shape. Strikingly, this attentional capture that followed perceptual learning (PL) was evident even when the trained shape was task-irrelevant, was presented outside the focus of top-down spatial attention, and was undetected by the observer. Moreover, this attentional capture persisted for at least 3-5 months after training had been terminated. This involuntary capture of attention was indexed by electrophysiological recordings of the N2pc component of the event-related brain potential, which was localized to ventral extrastriate visual cortex, and was highly predictive of stimulus-specific improvement in VS ability following PL. These findings provide the first evidence that nonsalient shapes can capture visual attention automatically following PL and challenge the prominent view that detection of feature conjunctions requires top-down focal attention. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

S-ketamine influences strategic allocation of attention but not exogenous capture of attention.

PubMed

Fuchs, Isabella; Ansorge, Ulrich; Huber-Huber, Christoph; Höflich, Anna; Lanzenberger, Rupert

2015-09-01

We investigated whether s-ketamine differentially affects strategic allocation of attention. In Experiment 1, (1) a less visible cue was weakly masked by the onsets of competing placeholders or (2) a better visible cue was not masked because it was presented in isolation. Both types of cue appeared more often opposite of the target (75%) than at target position (25%). With this setup, we tested for strategic attention shifts to the opposite side of the cues and for exogenous attentional capture toward the cue's side in a short cue-target interval, as well as for (reverse) cueing effects in a long cue-target interval after s-ketamine and after placebo treatment in a double-blind within-participant design. We found reduced strategic attention shifts after cues presented without placeholders for the s-ketamine compared to the placebo treatment in the short interval, indicating an early effect on the strategic allocation of attention. No differences between the two treatments were found for exogenous attentional capture by less visible cues, suggesting that s-ketamine does not affect exogenous attentional capture in the presence of competing distractors. Experiment 2 confirmed that the competing onsets of the placeholders prevented the strategic cueing effect. Taken together, the results indicate that s-ketamine affects strategic attentional capture, but not exogenous attentional capture. The findings point to a more prominent role of s-ketamine during top-down controlled forms of attention that require suppression of automatic capture than during automatic capture itself. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evidence for goal-independent attentional capture from validity effects with unexpected novel color cues--a response to Burnham (2007).

PubMed

Horstmann, Gernot; Becker, Stefanie I

2011-06-01

Can a stimulus capture attention independent of the observer's goals and intentions? In a recent review, (Burnham, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14, 392-422, 2007) argued that there is no convincing evidence that attention capture is ever completely independent of the goals and intentions of the observer. By contrast, surprise capture studies have shown that a color singleton can capture attention on its unannounced first occurrence, if it is new and unexpected, and hence is not part of the intentional set. However, the evidence from surprise capture studies has been criticized on methodological grounds. Here, we tested surprise capture in a new paradigm that avoids previous methodological complications. The results refute the prior criticisms and reinstate surprise capture as prime evidence for goal-independent capture.

Do different attention capture paradigms measure different types of capture?

PubMed

Roque, Nelson A; Wright, Timothy J; Boot, Walter R

2016-10-01

When something captures our attention, why does it do so? This topic has been hotly debated, with some arguing that attention is captured only by salient stimuli (bottom-up view) and others arguing capture is always due to a match between a stimulus and our goals (top-down view). Many different paradigms have provided evidence for 1 view or the other. If either of these strong views are correct, then capture represents a unitary phenomenon, and there should be a high correlation between capture in these paradigms. But if there are different types of capture (top-down, bottom-up), then some attention capture effects should be correlated and some should not. In 2 studies, we collected data from several paradigms used in support of claims of top-down and bottom-up capture in relatively large samples of participants. Contrary to either prediction, measures of capture were not strongly correlated. Results suggest that capture may in fact be strongly determined by idiosyncratic task demands and strategies. Relevant to this lack of relations among tasks, we observed that classic measures of attention capture demonstrated low reliability, especially among measures used to support bottom-up capture. Implications for the low reliability of capture measures are discussed. We also observed that the proportion of participants demonstrating a pattern of responses consistent with capture varied widely among classic measures of capture. Overall, results demonstrate that, even for relatively simple laboratory measures of attention, there are still important gaps in knowledge regarding what these paradigms measure and how they are related.

Value-driven attentional capture in the auditory domain.

PubMed

Anderson, Brian A

2016-01-01

It is now well established that the visual attention system is shaped by reward learning. When visual features are associated with a reward outcome, they acquire high priority and can automatically capture visual attention. To date, evidence for value-driven attentional capture has been limited entirely to the visual system. In the present study, I demonstrate that previously reward-associated sounds also capture attention, interfering more strongly with the performance of a visual task. This finding suggests that value-driven attention reflects a broad principle of information processing that can be extended to other sensory modalities and that value-driven attention can bias cross-modal stimulus competition.

Distinct roles of the intraparietal sulcus and temporoparietal junction in attentional capture from distractor features: An individual differences approach.

PubMed

Painter, David R; Dux, Paul E; Mattingley, Jason B

2015-07-01

Setting attention for an elementary visual feature, such as color or motion, results in greater spatial attentional "capture" from items with target compared with distractor features. Thus, capture is contingent on feature-based control settings. Neuroimaging studies suggest that this contingent attentional capture involves interactions between dorsal and ventral frontoparietal networks. To examine the distinct causal influences of these networks on contingent capture, we applied continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) to alter neural excitability within the dorsal intraparietal sulcus (IPS), the ventral temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and a control site, visual area MT. Participants undertook an attentional capture task before and after stimulation, in which they made speeded responses to color-defined targets that were preceded by spatial cues in the target or distractor color. Cues appeared either at the target location (valid) or at a non-target location (invalid). Reaction times were slower for targets preceded by invalid compared with valid cues, demonstrating spatial attentional capture. Cues with the target color captured attention to a greater extent than those with the distractor color, consistent with contingent capture. Effects of cTBS were not evident at the group level, but emerged instead from analyses of individual differences. Target capture magnitude was positively correlated pre- and post-stimulation for all three cortical sites, suggesting that cTBS did not influence target capture. Conversely, distractor capture was positively correlated pre- and post-stimulation of MT, but uncorrelated for IPS and TPJ, suggesting that stimulation of IPS and TPJ selectively disrupted distractor capture. Additionally, the effects of IPS stimulation were predicted by pre-stimulation attentional capture, whereas the effects of TPJ stimulation were predicted by pre-stimulation distractor suppression. The results are consistent with the existence of distinct neural circuits underlying target and distractor capture, as well as distinct roles for the IPS and TPJ. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Motivationally Significant Stimuli Show Visual Prior Entry: Evidence for Attentional Capture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

West, Greg L.; Anderson, Adam A. K.; Pratt, Jay

2009-01-01

Previous studies that have found attentional capture effects for stimuli of motivational significance do not directly measure initial attentional deployment, leaving it unclear to what extent these items produce attentional capture. Visual prior entry, as measured by temporal order judgments (TOJs), rests on the premise that allocated attention…

The Time Course of Attentional and Oculomotor Capture Reveals a Common Cause

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunt, Amelia R.; von Muhlenen, Adrian; Kingstone, Alan

2007-01-01

Eye movements are often misdirected toward a distractor when it appears abruptly, an effect known as oculomotor capture. Fundamental differences between eye movements and attention have led to questions about the relationship of oculomotor capture to the more general effect of sudden onsets on performance, known as attentional capture. This study…

Components of reward-driven attentional capture.

PubMed

Sha, Li Z; Jiang, Yuhong V

2016-02-01

Recent research reported that task-irrelevant colors captured attention if these colors previously served as search targets and received high monetary reward. We showed that both monetary reward and value-independent mechanisms influenced selective attention. Participants searched for two potential target colors among distractor colors in the training phase. Subsequently, they searched for a shape singleton in a testing phase. Experiment 1 found that participants were slower in the testing phase if a distractor of a previous target color was present rather than absent. Such slowing was observed even when no monetary reward was used during training. Experiment 2 associated monetary rewards with the target colors during the training phase. Participants were faster finding the target associated with higher monetary reward. However, reward training did not yield value-dependent attentional capture in the testing phase. Attentional capture by the previous target colors was not significantly greater for the previously high-reward color than the previously low or no-reward color. These findings revealed both the power and limitations of monetary reward on attention. Although monetary reward can increase attentional priority for the high-reward target during training, subsequent attentional capture effects may not be reward-based, but reflect, in part, attentional capture by previous targets.

Sensitivity to value-driven attention is predicted by how we learn from value.

PubMed

Jahfari, Sara; Theeuwes, Jan

2017-04-01

Reward learning is known to influence the automatic capture of attention. This study examined how the rate of learning, after high- or low-value reward outcomes, can influence future transfers into value-driven attentional capture. Participants performed an instrumental learning task that was directly followed by an attentional capture task. A hierarchical Bayesian reinforcement model was used to infer individual differences in learning from high or low reward. Results showed a strong relationship between high-reward learning rates (or the weight that is put on learning after a high reward) and the magnitude of attentional capture with high-reward colors. Individual differences in learning from high or low rewards were further related to performance differences when high- or low-value distractors were present. These findings provide novel insight into the development of value-driven attentional capture by showing how information updating after desired or undesired outcomes can influence future deployments of automatic attention.

Context-dependent control of attention capture: Evidence from proportion congruent effects.

PubMed

Crump, Matthew J C; Milliken, Bruce; Leboe-McGowan, Jason; Leboe-McGowan, Launa; Gao, Xiaoqing

2018-06-01

There are several independent demonstrations that attentional phenomena can be controlled in a context-dependent manner by cues associated with differing attentional control demands. The present set of experiments provide converging evidence that attention-capture phenomena can be modulated in a context-dependent fashion. We determined whether methods from the proportion congruent literature (listwide and item- and context-specific proportion congruent designs) that are known to modulate distractor interference effects in Stroop and flanker tasks are capable of modulating attention capture by salient feature singletons. Across experiments we found evidence that attention capture can be modulated by listwide, item-specific, and context-specific manipulations of proportion congruent. We discuss challenges associated with interpreting results from proportion congruent studies but propose that our findings converge with existing work that has demonstrated context-dependent control of attention capture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Contingent attentional capture occurs by activated target congruence.

PubMed

Ariga, Atsunori; Yokosawa, Kazuhiko

2008-05-01

Contingent attentional capture occurs when a stimulus property captures an observer's attention, usually related to the observer's top-down attentional set for target-defining properties. In this study, we examined whether contingent attentional capture occurs for a distractor that does not share the target-defining property at a physical level, but does share that property at an abstract level of representation. In a rapid serial visual presentation stream, we defined the target by color (e.g., a green-colored Japanese kanji character). Before the target onset, we presented a distractor that referred to the target-defining color (e.g., a white-colored character meaning "green"). We observed contingent attentional capture by the distractor, which was reflected by a deficit in identifying the subsequent target. This result suggests that because of the attentional set, stimuli were scanned on the basis of the target-defining property at an abstract semantic level of representation.

Visual question answering using hierarchical dynamic memory networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shang, Jiayu; Li, Shiren; Duan, Zhikui; Huang, Junwei

2018-04-01

Visual Question Answering (VQA) is one of the most popular research fields in machine learning which aims to let the computer learn to answer natural language questions with images. In this paper, we propose a new method called hierarchical dynamic memory networks (HDMN), which takes both question attention and visual attention into consideration impressed by Co-Attention method, which is the best (or among the best) algorithm for now. Additionally, we use bi-directional LSTMs, which have a better capability to remain more information from the question and image, to replace the old unit so that we can capture information from both past and future sentences to be used. Then we rebuild the hierarchical architecture for not only question attention but also visual attention. What's more, we accelerate the algorithm via a new technic called Batch Normalization which helps the network converge more quickly than other algorithms. The experimental result shows that our model improves the state of the art on the large COCO-QA dataset, compared with other methods.

Short-term and long-term plasticity in the visual-attention system: Evidence from habituation of attentional capture.

PubMed

Turatto, Massimo; Pascucci, David

2016-04-01

Attention is known to be crucial for learning and to regulate activity-dependent brain plasticity. Here we report the opposite scenario, with plasticity affecting the onset-driven automatic deployment of spatial attention. Specifically, we showed that attentional capture is subject to habituation, a fundamental form of plasticity consisting in a response decrement to repeated stimulations. Participants performed a visual discrimination task with focused attention, while being occasionally exposed to a distractor consisting of a high-luminance peripheral onset. With practice, short-term and long-term habituation of attentional capture emerged, making the visual-attention system fully immune to distraction. Furthermore, spontaneous recovery of attentional capture was found when the distractor was temporarily removed. Capture, however, once habituated was surprisingly resistant to spontaneous recovery, taking from several minutes to days to recover. The results suggest that the mechanisms subserving exogenous attentional orienting are subject to profound and enduring plastic changes based on previous experience, and that habituation can impact high-order cognitive functions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Commentary on Parent-Child Cognitive Learning Interaction Research: What Have We Learned from Two Decades of Research?

PubMed

Harris, Yvette R; Almutairi, Seham

2016-01-01

The role of family influences on preschool and school age cognitive development has received considerable empirical attention from cognitive developmental psychology researchers in the last few decades. As a result of the interest, investigators have focused their attention on developing coding/observational systems to capture the interactions occurring between mothers and their young children. This paper reviews a select body of research on parent-child cognitive learning interactions with the goal of determining how the researchers have operationalized the behaviors that occur within learning interactions. The paper concludes with a discussion of the suggestions on next steps for conducting parent-child cognitive learning interaction research in the future.

Contingent attentional capture or delayed allocation of attention?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Remington, R. W.; Folk, C. L.; McLean, J. P.

2001-01-01

Under certain circumstances, external stimuli will elicit an involuntary shift of spatial attention, referred to as attentional capture. According to the contingent involuntary orienting account (Folk, Remington, & Johnston, 1992), capture is conditioned by top-down factors that set attention to respond involuntarily to stimulus properties relevant to one's behavioral goals. Evidence for this comes from spatial cuing studies showing that a spatial cuing effect is observed only when cues have goal-relevant properties. Here, we examine alternative, decision-level explanations of the spatial cuing effect that attribute evidence of capture to postpresentation delays in the voluntary allocation of attention, rather than to on-line involuntary shifts in direct response to the cue. In three spatial cuing experiments, delayed-allocation accounts were tested by examining whether items at the cued location were preferentially processed. The experiments provide evidence that costs and benefits in spatial cuing experiments do reflect the on-line capture of attention. The implications of these results for models of attentional control are discussed.

Working memory contents revive the neglected, but suppress the inhibited.

PubMed

Han, Suk Won

2015-12-01

It is well known that attention is biased toward a stimulus matching working memory contents. However, it remains unknown whether the maintenance of information in working memory by itself is sufficient to create memory-driven attentional capture. Notably, in many previous studies showing the memory-driven attentional capture, the task settings might have explicitly or implicitly incentivized participants to strategically attend to a memory-matching stimulus. By innovating an experimental paradigm, the present study overcame this challenge and directly tested whether working memory contents capture attention in the absence of task-level attentional bias toward a memory-matching stimulus. I found that a stimulus that is usually outside the focus of attention, powerfully captured attention when it matched working memory contents, whereas a match between working memory and an inhibited stimulus suppressed attentional allocation toward the memory-matching stimulus. These findings suggest that in the absence of any task-level attentional bias toward memory-matching stimuli, attention is biased toward a memory-matching stimulus, but this memory-driven attentional capture is diminished when top-down inhibition is imposed on the stimulus. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Additivity of abrupt onset effects supports nonspatial distraction, not the capture of spatial attention.

PubMed

Folk, Charles L; Remington, Roger W; Wu, Shu-Chieh

2009-02-01

In a recent article, Schreij, Owens, and Theeuwes (2008) reported that abruptly onsetting distractors produce costs in performance even when spatial-cuing effects confirm the presence of a top-down set for color. The authors argued that these results show that abruptly onsetting new objects capture attention independent of a top-down set and, thus, provide conclusive evidence against the theory that attentional capture is contingent on top-down attentional control settings (Folk, Remington, & Johnston, 1992). In the following article, we argue that, contrary to the conclusion drawn by Schreij et al., their own data (1) disconfirm the claim that their abrupt onsets captured spatial attention and (2) are consistent with nonspatial interference accounts of singleton-distractor effects. In support of the nonspatial account, we show that in a paradigm similar to Schreij et al.'s, distractors that do not capture attention can nonetheless influence responses to a target. We conclude that the results of Schreij et al. do not represent a challenge to contingent capture theory.

Auditory and visual capture during focused visual attention.

PubMed

Koelewijn, Thomas; Bronkhorst, Adelbert; Theeuwes, Jan

2009-10-01

It is well known that auditory and visual onsets presented at a particular location can capture a person's visual attention. However, the question of whether such attentional capture disappears when attention is focused endogenously beforehand has not yet been answered. Moreover, previous studies have not differentiated between capture by onsets presented at a nontarget (invalid) location and possible performance benefits occurring when the target location is (validly) cued. In this study, the authors modulated the degree of attentional focus by presenting endogenous cues with varying reliability and by displaying placeholders indicating the precise areas where the target stimuli could occur. By using not only valid and invalid exogenous cues but also neutral cues that provide temporal but no spatial information, they found performance benefits as well as costs when attention is not strongly focused. The benefits disappear when the attentional focus is increased. These results indicate that there is bottom-up capture of visual attention by irrelevant auditory and visual stimuli that cannot be suppressed by top-down attentional control. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Pavlovian reward learning underlies value driven attentional capture.

PubMed

Bucker, Berno; Theeuwes, Jan

2017-02-01

Recent evidence shows that distractors that signal high compared to low reward availability elicit stronger attentional capture, even when this is detrimental for task-performance. This suggests that simply correlating stimuli with reward administration, rather than their instrumental relationship with obtaining reward, produces value-driven attentional capture. However, in previous studies, reward delivery was never response independent, as only correct responses were rewarded, nor was it completely task-irrelevant, as the distractor signaled the magnitude of reward that could be earned on that trial. In two experiments, we ensured that associative reward learning was completely response independent by letting participants perform a task at fixation, while high and low rewards were automatically administered following the presentation of task-irrelevant colored stimuli in the periphery (Experiment 1) or at fixation (Experiment 2). In a following non-reward test phase, using the additional singleton paradigm, the previously reward signaling stimuli were presented as distractors to assess truly task-irrelevant value driven attentional capture. The results showed that high compared to low reward-value associated distractors impaired performance, and thus captured attention more strongly. This suggests that genuine Pavlovian conditioning of stimulus-reward contingencies is sufficient to obtain value-driven attentional capture. Furthermore, value-driven attentional capture can occur following associative reward learning of temporally and spatially task-irrelevant distractors that signal the magnitude of available reward (Experiment 1), and is independent of training spatial shifts of attention towards the reward signaling stimuli (Experiment 2). This confirms and strengthens the idea that Pavlovian reward learning underlies value driven attentional capture.

Attentional capture by working memory contents.

PubMed

Pan, Yi

2010-06-01

There has been controversy on whether working memory (WM) contents automatically guide attention. The present study tried to replicate the effect of WM-based attentional capture using an adaption of Downing's (2000) paradigm, in which WM and attentional capture were combined. Subjects were presented with an attention display containing two objects, one of which could be precued by a matching item being held in WM. As measured by a probe discrimination task, the memory-matching object had a privileged status to capture attention regardless of the stimulus onset asynchronies between the memory cue and the attention display, even when there was absolutely no benefit for subjects to bias attention in favour of the memory match. These results suggest that WM contents guide attention in an involuntary manner. The implications of current findings for understanding of WM effects on visual selection are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

The role of top-down spatial attention in contingent attentional capture.

PubMed

Huang, Wanyi; Su, Yuling; Zhen, Yanfen; Qu, Zhe

2016-05-01

It is well known that attentional capture by an irrelevant salient item is contingent on top-down feature selection, but whether attentional capture may be modulated by top-down spatial attention remains unclear. Here, we combined behavioral and ERP measurements to investigate the contribution of top-down spatial attention to attentional capture under modified spatial cueing paradigms. Each target stimulus was preceded by a peripheral circular cue array containing a spatially uninformative color singleton cue. We varied target sets but kept the cue array unchanged among different experimental conditions. When participants' task was to search for a colored letter in the target array that shared the same peripheral locations with the cue array, attentional capture by the peripheral color cue was reflected by both a behavioral spatial cueing effect and a cue-elicited N2pc component. When target arrays were presented more centrally, both the behavioral and N2pc effects were attenuated but still significant. The attenuated cue-elicited N2pc was found even when participants focused their attention on the fixed central location to identify a colored letter among an RSVP letter stream. By contrast, when participants were asked to identify an outlined or larger target, neither the behavioral spatial cueing effect nor the cue-elicited N2pc was observed, regardless of whether the target and cue arrays shared same locations or not. These results add to the evidence that attentional capture by salient stimuli is contingent upon feature-based task sets, and further indicate that top-down spatial attention is important but may not be necessary for contingent attentional capture. © 2016 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Unique sudden onsets capture attention even when observers are in feature-search mode.

PubMed

Spalek, Thomas M; Yanko, Matthew R; Poiese, Paola; Lagroix, Hayley E P

2012-01-01

Two sources of attentional capture have been proposed: stimulus-driven (exogenous) and goal-oriented (endogenous). A resolution between these modes of capture has not been straightforward. Even such a clearly exogenous event as the sudden onset of a stimulus can be said to capture attention endogenously if observers operate in singleton-detection mode rather than feature-search mode. In four experiments we show that a unique sudden onset captures attention even when observers are in feature-search mode. The displays were rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) streams of differently coloured letters with the target letter defined by a specific colour. Distractors were four #s, one of the target colour, surrounding one of the non-target letters. Capture was substantially reduced when the onset of the distractor array was not unique because it was preceded by other sets of four grey # arrays in the RSVP stream. This provides unambiguous evidence that attention can be captured both exogenously and endogenously within a single task.

The impact of red light running camera flashes on younger and older drivers' attention and oculomotor control.

PubMed

Wright, Timothy J; Vitale, Thomas; Boot, Walter R; Charness, Neil

2015-12-01

Recent empirical evidence has suggested that the flashes associated with red light running cameras (RLRCs) distract younger drivers, pulling attention away from the roadway and delaying processing of safety-relevant events. Considering the perceptual and attentional declines that occur with age, older drivers may be especially susceptible to the distracting effects of RLRC flashes, particularly in situations in which the flash is more salient (a bright flash at night compared with the day). The current study examined how age and situational factors potentially influence attention capture by RLRC flashes using covert (cuing effects) and overt (eye movement) indices of capture. We manipulated the salience of the flash by varying its luminance and contrast with respect to the background of the driving scene (either day or night scenes). Results of 2 experiments suggest that simulated RLRC flashes capture observers' attention, but, surprisingly, no age differences in capture were observed. However, an analysis examining early and late eye movements revealed that older adults may have been strategically delaying their eye movements in order to avoid capture. Additionally, older adults took longer to disengage attention following capture, suggesting at least 1 age-related disadvantage in capture situations. Findings have theoretical implications for understanding age differences in attention capture, especially with respect to capture in real-world scenes, and inform future work that should examine how the distracting effects of RLRC flashes influence driver behavior. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

The Impact of Red Light Running Camera Flashes on Younger and Older Drivers' Attention and Oculomotor Control

PubMed Central

Wright, Timothy J.; Vitale, Thomas; Boot, Walter R; Charness, Neil

2015-01-01

Recent empirical evidence suggests that the flashes associated with red light running cameras (RLRCs) distract younger drivers, pulling attention away from the roadway and delaying processing of safety-relevant events. Considering the perceptual and attentional declines that occur with age, older drivers may be especially susceptible to the distracting effects of RLRC flashes, particularly in situations in which the flash is more salient (a bright flash at night compared to the day). The current study examined how age and situational factors potentially influence attention capture by RLRC flashes using covert (cuing effects) and overt (eye movement) indices of capture. We manipulated the salience of the flash by varying its luminance and contrast with respect to the background of the driving scene (either day or night scenes). Results of two experiments suggest that simulated RLRC flashes capture observers' attention, but, surprisingly, no age differences in capture were observed. However, an analysis examining early and late eye movements revealed that older adults may have been strategically delaying their eye movements in order to avoid capture. Additionally, older adults took longer to disengage attention following capture, suggesting at least one age-related disadvantage in capture situations. Findings have theoretical implications for understanding age differences in attention capture, especially with respect to capture in real-world scenes, and inform future work that should examine how the distracting effects of RLRC flashes influence driver behavior. PMID:26479014

Causal involvement of visual area MT in global feature-based enhancement but not contingent attentional capture.

PubMed

Painter, David R; Dux, Paul E; Mattingley, Jason B

2015-09-01

When visual attention is set for a particular target feature, such as color or shape, neural responses to that feature are enhanced across the visual field. This global feature-based enhancement is hypothesized to underlie the contingent attentional capture effect, in which task-irrelevant items with the target feature capture spatial attention. In humans, however, different cortical regions have been implicated in global feature-based enhancement and contingent capture. Here, we applied intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) to assess the causal roles of two regions of extrastriate cortex - right area MT and the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) - in both global feature-based enhancement and contingent capture. We recorded cortical activity using EEG while participants monitored centrally for targets defined by color and ignored peripheral checkerboards that matched the distractor or target color. In central vision, targets were preceded by colored cues designed to capture attention. Stimuli flickered at unique frequencies, evoking distinct cortical oscillations. Analyses of these oscillations and behavioral performance revealed contingent capture in central vision and global feature-based enhancement in the periphery. Stimulation of right area MT selectively increased global feature-based enhancement, but did not influence contingent attentional capture. By contrast, stimulation of the right TPJ left both processes unaffected. Our results reveal a causal role for the right area MT in feature-based attention, and suggest that global feature-based enhancement does not underlie the contingent capture effect. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Under-reactive but easily distracted: An fMRI investigation of attentional capture in autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Keehn, Brandon; Nair, Aarti; Lincoln, Alan J; Townsend, Jeanne; Müller, Ralph-Axel

2016-02-01

For individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), salient behaviorally-relevant information often fails to capture attention, while subtle behaviorally-irrelevant details commonly induce a state of distraction. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neurocognitive networks underlying attentional capture in sixteen high-functioning children and adolescents with ASD and twenty-one typically developing (TD) individuals. Participants completed a rapid serial visual presentation paradigm designed to investigate activation of attentional networks to behaviorally-relevant targets and contingent attention capture by task-irrelevant distractors. In individuals with ASD, target stimuli failed to trigger bottom-up activation of the ventral attentional network and the cerebellum. Additionally, the ASD group showed no differences in behavior or occipital activation associated with contingent attentional capture. Rather, results suggest that to-be-ignored distractors that shared either task-relevant or irrelevant features captured attention in ASD. Results indicate that individuals with ASD may be under-reactive to behaviorally-relevant stimuli, unable to filter irrelevant information, and that both top-down and bottom-up attention networks function atypically in ASD. Lastly, deficits in target-related processing were associated with autism symptomatology, providing further support for the hypothesis that non-social attentional processes and their neurofunctional underpinnings may play a significant role in the development of sociocommunicative impairments in ASD. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Attentional capture by masked colour singletons.

PubMed

Ansorge, Ulrich; Horstmann, Gernot; Worschech, Franziska

2010-09-15

We tested under which conditions a colour singleton of which an observer is unaware captures attention. To prevent visual awareness of the colour singleton, we used backward masking. We find that a masked colour singleton cue captures attention if it matches the observer's goal to search for target colours but not if it is task-irrelevant. This is also reflected in event-related potentials to the visible target: the masked goal-matching cue elicits an attentional potential (N2pc) in a target search task. By contrast, a non-matching but equally strong masked colour singleton cue failed to elicit a capture effect and an N2pc. Results are discussed with regard to currently pertaining conceptions of attentional capture by colour singletons. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perceptual organization, visual attention, and objecthood.

PubMed

Kimchi, Ruth; Yeshurun, Yaffa; Spehar, Branka; Pirkner, Yossef

2016-09-01

We have previously demonstrated that the mere organization of some elements in the visual field into an object attracts attention automatically. Here, we explored three different aspects of this automatic attentional capture: (a) Does the attentional capture by an object involve a spatial component? (b) Which Gestalt organization factors suffice for an object to capture attention? (c) Does the strength of organization affect the object's ability to capture attention? Participants viewed multi-elements displays and either identified the color of one element or responded to a Vernier target. On some trials, a subset of the elements grouped by Gestalt factors into an object that was irrelevant to the task and not predictive of the target. An object effect - faster performance for targets within the object than for targets outside the object - was found even when the target appeared after the object offset, and was sensitive to target-object distance, suggesting that the capture of attention by an object is accompanied by a deployment of attention to the object location. Object effects of similar magnitude were found for objects grouped by a combination of factors (collinearity, closure, and symmetry, or closure and symmetry) or by a single factor when it was collinearity, but not symmetry, suggesting that collinearity, or closure combined with symmetry, suffices for automatic capture of attention by an object, but symmetry does not. Finally, the strength of grouping in modal completion, manipulated by varying contrast polarity between and within elements, affected the effectiveness of the attentional capture by the induced object. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Oral health considerations in anorexia and bulimia nervosa. 1. Symptomatology and diagnosis.

PubMed

Bassiouny, Mohamed A

2017-01-01

Eating disorders have captured the attention of medical and dental professionals as well as the public for decades and continue to raise concern today. The literature devoted to anorexia and bulimia highlights myriad psychological, systemic, and dental health complications. Dental practitioners are in a unique position to discover early manifestations of these disorders. The present article reviews anorexia and bulimia, summarizing telltale behavioral traits, systemic manifestations, and dental features to facilitate recognition and enable accurate diagnosis.

Contingent Attentional Capture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Remington, Roger; Folk, Charles L.

1994-01-01

Four experiments address the degree of top-down selectivity in attention capture by feature singletons through manipulations of the spatial relationship and featural similarity of target and distractor singletons in a modified spatial cuing paradigm. Contrary to previous studies, all four experiments show that when searching for a singleton target, an irrelevant featural singleton captures attention only when defined by the same feature value as the target. Experiments 2, 3, and 4 provide a potential explanation for this empirical discrepancy by showing that irrelevant singletons can produce distraction effects that are independent of shifts of spatial attention. The results further support the notion that attentional capture is contingent on top-down attention control settings but indicates that such settings can be instantiated at the level of feature values.

Salience-Based Selection: Attentional Capture by Distractors Less Salient Than the Target

PubMed Central

Goschy, Harriet; Müller, Hermann Joseph

2013-01-01

Current accounts of attentional capture predict the most salient stimulus to be invariably selected first. However, existing salience and visual search models assume noise in the map computation or selection process. Consequently, they predict the first selection to be stochastically dependent on salience, implying that attention could even be captured first by the second most salient (instead of the most salient) stimulus in the field. Yet, capture by less salient distractors has not been reported and salience-based selection accounts claim that the distractor has to be more salient in order to capture attention. We tested this prediction using an empirical and modeling approach of the visual search distractor paradigm. For the empirical part, we manipulated salience of target and distractor parametrically and measured reaction time interference when a distractor was present compared to absent. Reaction time interference was strongly correlated with distractor salience relative to the target. Moreover, even distractors less salient than the target captured attention, as measured by reaction time interference and oculomotor capture. In the modeling part, we simulated first selection in the distractor paradigm using behavioral measures of salience and considering the time course of selection including noise. We were able to replicate the result pattern we obtained in the empirical part. We conclude that each salience value follows a specific selection time distribution and attentional capture occurs when the selection time distributions of target and distractor overlap. Hence, selection is stochastic in nature and attentional capture occurs with a certain probability depending on relative salience. PMID:23382820

Attentional Capture by an Unannounced Color Singleton Depends on Expectation Discrepancy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horstmann, Gernot

2005-01-01

Eight experiments examined the conditions under which a color singleton that is presented for the 1st time without prior announcement captures attention. The main hypothesis is that an unannounced singleton captures attention to the extent that it deviates from expectations. This hypothesis was tested within a visual-search paradigm in which…

Contingent Attentional Capture by Conceptually Relevant Images

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wyble, Brad; Folk, Charles; Potter, Mary C.

2013-01-01

Attentional capture is an unintentional shift of visuospatial attention to the location of a distractor that is either highly salient, or relevant to the current task set. The latter situation is referred to as contingent capture, in that the effect is contingent on a match between characteristics of the stimuli and the task-defined…

Attentional cueing: fearful body postures capture attention with saccades.

PubMed

Bannerman, Rachel L; Milders, Maarten; Sahraie, Arash

2010-05-01

According to theories of attention and emotion, threat-related stimuli (e.g., negative facial expressions) capture and hold attention. Despite these theories, previous examination of attentional cueing by threat showed no enhanced capture at brief durations. One explanation for the absence of attentional capture effects may be related to the sensitivity of the manual response measure employed. Here we extended beyond facial expressions and investigated the time course of orienting attention towards fearful body postures in the exogenous cueing task. Cue duration (20, 40, 60, or 100 ms), orientation (upright or inverted), and response mode (saccadic eye movement or manual keypress) were manipulated across three experiments. In the saccade mode, both enhanced attentional capture and impaired disengagement from fearful bodies were evident and limited to rapid cue durations (20 and 40 ms), suggesting that saccadic cueing effects emerge rapidly and are short lived. In the manual mode, fearful bodies impacted only upon the disengagement component of attention at 100 ms, suggesting that manual cueing effects emerge over longer periods of time. No cueing modulation was found for inverted presentation, suggesting that valence, not low-level image confounds, was responsible for the cueing effects. Importantly, saccades could reveal threat biases at brief cue durations consistent with current theories of emotion and attention.

Reward and attentional control in visual search.

PubMed

Yantis, Steven; Anderson, Brian A; Wampler, Emma K; Laurent, Patryk A

2012-01-01

It has long been known that the control of attention in visual search depends both on voluntary, top-down deployment according to context-specific goals, and on involuntary, stimulus-driven capture based on the physical conspicuity of perceptual objects. Recent evidence suggests that pairing target stimuli with reward can modulate the voluntary deployment of attention, but there is little evidence that reward modulates the involuntary deployment of attention to task-irrelevant distractors. We report several experiments that investigate the role of reward learning on attentional control. Each experiment involved a training phase and a test phase. In the training phase, different colors were associated with different amounts of monetary reward. In the test phase, color was not task-relevant and participants searched for a shape singleton; in most experiments no reward was delivered in the test phase. We first show that attentional capture by physically salient distractors is magnified by a previous association with reward. In subsequent experiments we demonstrate that physically inconspicuous stimuli previously associated with reward capture attention persistently during extinction--even several days after training. Furthermore, vulnerability to attentional capture by high-value stimuli is negatively correlated across individuals with working memory capacity and positively correlated with trait impulsivity. An analysis of intertrial effects reveals that value-driven attentional capture is spatially specific. Finally, when reward is delivered at test contingent on the task-relevant shape feature, recent reward history modulates value-driven attentional capture by the irrelevant color feature. The influence of learned value on attention may provide a useful model of clinical syndromes characterized by similar failures of cognitive control, including addiction, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and obesity.

Reward and Attentional Control in Visual Search

PubMed Central

Anderson, Brian A.; Wampler, Emma K.; Laurent, Patryk A.

2015-01-01

It has long been known that the control of attention in visual search depends both on voluntary, top-down deployment according to context-specific goals, and on involuntary, stimulus-driven capture based on the physical conspicuity of perceptual objects. Recent evidence suggests that pairing target stimuli with reward can modulate the voluntary deployment of attention, but there is little evidence that reward modulates the involuntary deployment of attention to task-irrelevant distractors. We report several experiments that investigate the role of reward learning on attentional control. Each experiment involved a training phase and a test phase. In the training phase, different colors were associated with different amounts of monetary reward. In the test phase, color was not task-relevant and participants searched for a shape singleton; in most experiments no reward was delivered in the test phase. We first show that attentional capture by physically salient distractors is magnified by a previous association with reward. In subsequent experiments we demonstrate that physically inconspicuous stimuli previously associated with reward capture attention persistently during extinction—even several days after training. Furthermore, vulnerability to attentional capture by high-value stimuli is negatively correlated across individuals with working memory capacity and positively correlated with trait impulsivity. An analysis of intertrial effects reveals that value-driven attentional capture is spatially specific. Finally, when reward is delivered at test contingent on the task-relevant shape feature, recent reward history modulates value-driven attentional capture by the irrelevant color feature. The influence of learned value on attention may provide a useful model of clinical syndromes characterized by similar failures of cognitive control, including addiction, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and obesity. PMID:23437631

Temporal attention is involved in the enhancement of attentional capture with task difficulty: an event-related brain potential study.

PubMed

Sugimoto, Fumie; Kimura, Motohiro; Takeda, Yuji; Katayama, Jun'ichi

2017-08-16

In a three-stimulus oddball task, the amplitude of P3a elicited by deviant stimuli increases with an increase in the difficulty of discriminating between standard and target stimuli (i.e. task-difficulty effect on P3a), indicating that attentional capture by deviant stimuli is enhanced with an increase in task difficulty. This enhancement of attentional capture may be explained in terms of the modulation of modality-nonspecific temporal attention; that is, the participant's attention directed to the predicted timing of stimulus presentation is stronger when the task difficulty increases, which results in enhanced attentional capture. The present study examined this possibility with a modified three-stimulus oddball task consisting of a visual standard, a visual target, and four types of deviant stimuli defined by a combination of two modalities (visual and auditory) and two presentation timings (predicted and unpredicted). We expected that if the modulation of temporal attention is involved in enhanced attentional capture, then the task-difficulty effect on P3a should be reduced for unpredicted compared with predicted deviant stimuli irrespective of their modality; this is because the influence of temporal attention should be markedly weaker for unpredicted compared with predicted deviant stimuli. The results showed that the task-difficulty effect on P3a was significantly reduced for unpredicted compared with predicted deviant stimuli in both the visual and the auditory modalities. This result suggests that the modulation of modality-nonspecific temporal attention induced by the increase in task difficulty is at least partly involved in the enhancement of attentional capture by deviant stimuli.

Reward can modulate attentional capture, independent of top-down set.

PubMed

Munneke, Jaap; Hoppenbrouwers, Sylco S; Theeuwes, Jan

2015-11-01

The traditional distinction between exogenous and endogenous attentional control has recently been enriched with an additional mode of control, termed "selection history." Recent findings have indicated, for instance, that previously rewarded or punished stimuli capture more attention than their physical attributes would predict. As such, the value that is associated with certain stimuli modulates attentional capture. This particular influence has also been shown for endogenous attention. Although recent leads have emerged, elucidating the influences of reward on exogenous and endogenous attention, it remains unclear to what extent exogenous attention is modulated by reward when endogenous attention is already deployed. We used a Posner cueing task in which exogenous and endogenous cues were presented to guide attention. Crucially, the exogenous cue also indicated the reward value. That is, the color of the exogenous cue indicated how much reward could be obtained on a given trial. The results showed main effects of endogenous and exogenous attention (i.e., speeded reaction times when either cue was valid, as compared to when it was invalid). Crucially, an interaction between exogenous cue validity and reward level was observed, indicating that reward-based associative-learning processes rapidly influence attentional capture, even when endogenous attention has been actively deployed.

The impact of intonation and valence on objective and subjective attention capture by auditory alarms.

PubMed

Ljungberg, Jessica K; Parmentier, Fabrice

2012-10-01

The objective was to study the involuntary capture of attention by spoken words varying in intonation and valence. In studies of verbal alarms, the propensity of alarms to capture attention has been primarily assessed with the use of subjective ratings of their perceived urgency. Past studies suggest that such ratings vary with the alarms' spoken urgency and content. We measured attention capture by spoken words varying in valence (negative vs. neutral) and intonation (urgently vs. nonurgently spoken) through subjective ratings and behavioral measures. The key behavioral measure was the response latency to visual stimuli in the presence of spoken words breaking away from the periodical repetition of a tone. The results showed that all words captured attention relative to a baseline standard tone but that this effect was partly counteracted by a relative speeding of responses for urgently compared with nonurgently spoken words. Word valence did not affect behavioral performance. Rating data showed that both intonation and valence increased significantly perceived urgency and attention grabbing without any interaction. The data suggest a congruency between subjective ratings and behavioral performance with respect to spoken intonation but not valence. This study demonstrates the usefulness and feasibility of objective measures of attention capture to help design efficient alarm systems.

Distractor-Induced Blindness: A Special Case of Contingent Attentional Capture?

PubMed Central

Winther, Gesche N.; Niedeggen, Michael

2017-01-01

The detection of a salient visual target embedded in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) can be severely affected if target-like distractors are presented previously. This phenomenon, known as distractor-induced blindness (DIB), shares the prerequisites of contingent attentional capture (Folk, Remington, & Johnston, 1992). In both, target processing is transiently impaired by the presentation of distractors defined by similar features. In the present study, we investigated whether the speeded response to a target in the DIB paradigm can be described in terms of a contingent attentional capture process. In the first experiments, multiple distractors were embedded in the RSVP stream. Distractors either shared the target’s visual features (Experiment 1A) or differed from them (Experiment 1B). Congruent with hypotheses drawn from contingent attentional capture theory, response times (RTs) were exclusively impaired in conditions with target-like distractors. However, RTs were not impaired if only one single target-like distractor was presented (Experiment 2). If attentional capture directly contributed to DIB, the single distractor should be sufficient to impair target processing. In conclusion, DIB is not due to contingent attentional capture, but may rely on a central suppression process triggered by multiple distractors. PMID:28439320

Contingent capture effects in temporal order judgments.

PubMed

Born, Sabine; Kerzel, Dirk; Pratt, Jay

2015-08-01

The contingent attentional capture hypothesis proposes that visual stimuli that do not possess characteristics relevant for the current task will not capture attention, irrespective of their bottom-up saliency. Typically, contingent capture is tested in a spatial cuing paradigm, comparing manual reaction times (RTs) across different conditions. However, attention may act through several mechanisms and RTs may not be ideal to disentangle those different components. In 3 experiments, we examined whether color singleton cues provoke cuing effects in temporal order judgments (TOJs) and whether they would be contingent on attentional control sets. Experiment 1 showed that color singleton cues indeed produce cuing effects in TOJs, even in a cluttered and dynamic target display containing multiple heterogeneous distractors. In Experiment 2, consistent with contingent capture, we observed reliable cuing effects only when the singleton cue matched participants' current attentional control set. Experiment 3 suggests that a sensory interaction account of the differences found in Experiment 2 is unlikely. Our results help to discern the attentional components that may play a role in contingent capture. Further, we discuss a number of other effects (e.g., reversed cuing effects) that are found in RTs, but so far have not been reported in TOJs. Those differences suggest that RTs are influenced by a multitude of mechanisms; however, not all of these mechanisms may affect TOJs. We conclude by highlighting how the study of attentional capture in TOJs provides valuable insights for the attention literature, but also for studies concerned with the perceived timing between stimuli. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Fixation not required: characterizing oculomotor attention capture for looming stimuli.

PubMed

Lewis, Joanna E; Neider, Mark B

2015-10-01

A stimulus moving toward us, such as a ball being thrown in our direction or a vehicle braking suddenly in front of ours, often represents a stimulus that requires a rapid response. Using a visual search task in which target and distractor items were systematically associated with a looming object, we explored whether this sort of looming motion captures attention, the nature of such capture using eye movement measures (overt/covert), and the extent to which such capture effects are more closely tied to motion onset or the motion itself. We replicated previous findings indicating that looming motion induces response time benefits and costs during visual search Lin, Franconeri, & Enns(Psychological Science 19(7): 686-693, 2008). These differences in response times were independent of fixation, indicating that these capture effects did not necessitate overt attentional shifts to a looming object for search benefits or costs to occur. Interestingly, we found no differences in capture benefits and costs associated with differences in looming motion type. Combined, our results suggest that capture effects associated with looming motion are more likely subserved by covert attentional mechanisms rather than overt mechanisms, and attention capture for looming motion is likely related to motion itself rather than the onset of motion.

The Temporal Attentive Observation (TAO) Scale: Development of an Instrument to Assess Attentive Behavior Sequences during Serious Gameplay

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Folkestad, James E.; McKernan, Brian; Train, Stephanie; Martey, Rosa Mikeal; Rhodes, Matthew G.; Kenski, Kate; Shaw, Adrienne; Stromer-Galley, Jennifer; Clegg, Benjamin A.; Strzalkowski, Tomek

2018-01-01

The engaging nature of video games has intrigued learning professionals attempting to capture and retain learners' attention. Designing learning interventions that not only capture the learner's attention, but also are designed around the natural cycle of attention will be vital for learning. This paper introduces the temporal attentive…

Attentional Capture with Rapidly Changing Attentional Control Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lien, Mei-Ching; Ruthruff, Eric; Johnston, James C.

2010-01-01

The classic theory of spatial attention hypothesized 2 modes, voluntary and involuntary. Folk, Remington, and Johnston (1992) reported that even involuntary attention capture by stimuli requires a match between stimulus properties and what the observer is looking for. This surprising conclusion has been confirmed by many subsequent studies. In…

Capturing Attention When Attention "Blinks"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wee, Serena; Chua, Fook K.

2004-01-01

Four experiments addressed the question of whether attention may be captured when the visual system is in the midst of an attentional blink (AB). Participants identified 2 target letters embedded among distractor letters in a rapid serial visual presentation sequence. In some trials, a square frame was inserted between the targets; as the only…

Context-Dependent Control over Attentional Capture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cosman, Joshua D.; Vecera, Shaun P.

2013-01-01

A number of studies have demonstrated that the likelihood of a salient item capturing attention is dependent on the "attentional set" an individual employs in a given situation. The instantiation of an attentional set is often viewed as a strategic, voluntary process, relying on working memory systems that represent immediate task…

Persistence of Value-Driven Attentional Capture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Brian A.; Yantis, Steven

2013-01-01

Stimuli that have previously been associated with the delivery of reward involuntarily capture attention when presented as unrewarded and task-irrelevant distractors in a subsequent visual search task. It is unknown how long such effects of reward learning on attention persist. One possibility is that value-driven attentional biases are plastic…

The role of unique color changes and singletons in attention capture.

PubMed

von Mühlenen, Adrian; Conci, Markus

2016-10-01

Previous studies have shown that a sudden color change is typically less salient in capturing attention than the onset of a new object. Von Mühlenen, Rempel, and Enns (Psychological Science 16: 979-986, 2005) showed that a color change can capture attention as effectively as the onset of a new object given that it occurs during a period of temporal calm, where no other display changes happen. The current study presents a series of experiments that further investigate the conditions under which a change in color captures attention, by disentangling the change signal from the onset of a singleton. The results show that the item changing color receives attentional priority irrespective of whether this change goes along with the appearance of a singleton or not.

When do luminance changes capture attention?

PubMed

Spehar, Branka; Owens, Caleb

2012-05-01

In two experiments, we examined the ability of task-irrelevant changes in luminance to capture attention in an irrelevant singleton search. By using uniform increment and decrement arrays, we were able to create changes of the same absolute magnitude, but resulting in a singleton with either higher or lower contrast magnitude, relative to other elements in the search array. A condition where a singleton changed contrast polarity without a concomitant change in the overall contrast magnitude was also included. It was found that only luminance changes resulting in a singleton having increased contrast (or saliency) were effective in capturing attention. In addition, no attentional capture was observed when the irrelevant singleton was characterized by the equivalent amount of static luminance differences, suggesting a unique attentional prioritization of luminance changes that increase singleton saliency.

Entirely irrelevant distractors can capture and captivate attention.

PubMed

Forster, Sophie; Lavie, Nilli

2011-12-01

The question of whether a stimulus onset may capture attention when it is entirely irrelevant to the task and even in the absence of any attentional settings for abrupt onset or any dynamic changes has been highly controversial. In the present study, we designed a novel irrelevant capture task to address this question. Participants engaged in a continuous task making sequential forced choice (letter or digit) responses to each item in an alphanumeric matrix that remained on screen throughout many responses. This task therefore involved no attentional settings for onset or indeed any dynamic changes, yet the brief onset of an entirely irrelevant distractor (a cartoon picture) resulted in significant slowing of the two (Experiment 1) or three (Experiment 2) responses immediately following distractor appearance These findings provide a clear demonstration of attention being captured and captivated by a distractor that is entirely irrelevant to any attentional settings of the task.

Automatic attention to emotional stimuli: neural correlates.

PubMed

Carretié, Luis; Hinojosa, José A; Martín-Loeches, Manuel; Mercado, Francisco; Tapia, Manuel

2004-08-01

We investigated the capability of emotional and nonemotional visual stimulation to capture automatic attention, an aspect of the interaction between cognitive and emotional processes that has received scant attention from researchers. Event-related potentials were recorded from 37 subjects using a 60-electrode array, and were submitted to temporal and spatial principal component analyses to detect and quantify the main components, and to source localization software (LORETA) to determine their spatial origin. Stimuli capturing automatic attention were of three types: emotionally positive, emotionally negative, and nonemotional pictures. Results suggest that initially (P1: 105 msec after stimulus), automatic attention is captured by negative pictures, and not by positive or nonemotional ones. Later (P2: 180 msec), automatic attention remains captured by negative pictures, but also by positive ones. Finally (N2: 240 msec), attention is captured only by positive and nonemotional stimuli. Anatomically, this sequence is characterized by decreasing activation of the visual association cortex (VAC) and by the growing involvement, from dorsal to ventral areas, of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Analyses suggest that the ACC and not the VAC is responsible for experimental effects described above. Intensity, latency, and location of neural activity related to automatic attention thus depend clearly on the stimulus emotional content and on its associated biological importance. Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Echolocating bats use future-target information for optimal foraging.

PubMed

Fujioka, Emyo; Aihara, Ikkyu; Sumiya, Miwa; Aihara, Kazuyuki; Hiryu, Shizuko

2016-04-26

When seeing or listening to an object, we aim our attention toward it. While capturing prey, many animal species focus their visual or acoustic attention toward the prey. However, for multiple prey items, the direction and timing of attention for effective foraging remain unknown. In this study, we adopted both experimental and mathematical methodology with microphone-array measurements and mathematical modeling analysis to quantify the attention of echolocating bats that were repeatedly capturing airborne insects in the field. Here we show that bats select rational flight paths to consecutively capture multiple prey items. Microphone-array measurements showed that bats direct their sonar attention not only to the immediate prey but also to the next prey. In addition, we found that a bat's attention in terms of its flight also aims toward the next prey even when approaching the immediate prey. Numerical simulations revealed a possibility that bats shift their flight attention to control suitable flight paths for consecutive capture. When a bat only aims its flight attention toward its immediate prey, it rarely succeeds in capturing the next prey. These findings indicate that bats gain increased benefit by distributing their attention among multiple targets and planning the future flight path based on additional information of the next prey. These experimental and mathematical studies allowed us to observe the process of decision making by bats during their natural flight dynamics.

Distractors associated with reward break through the focus of attention.

PubMed

Munneke, Jaap; Belopolsky, Artem V; Theeuwes, Jan

2016-10-01

In the present study, we investigated the conditions in which rewarded distractors have the ability to capture attention, even when attention is directed toward the target location. Experiment 1 showed that when the probability of obtaining reward was high, all salient distractors captured attention, even when they were not associated with reward. This effect may have been caused by participants suboptimally using the 100%-valid endogenous location cue. Experiment 2 confirmed this result by showing that salient distractors did not capture attention in a block in which no reward was expected. In Experiment 3, the probability of the presence of a distractor was high, but it only signaled reward availability on a low number of trials. The results showed that those very infrequent distractors that signaled reward captured attention, whereas the distractors (both frequent and infrequent ones) not associated with reward were simply ignored. The latter experiment indicates that even when attention is directed to a location in space, stimuli associated with reward break through the focus of attention, but equally salient stimuli not associated with reward do not.

The modulation of perceptual selection by working memory is dependent on the focus of spatial attention.

PubMed

Pan, Yi; Soto, David

2010-07-09

Recent research suggests that visual selection can be automatically biased to those stimuli matching the contents of working memory (WM). However, a complete functional account of the interplay between WM and attention remains to be established. In particular, the boundary conditions of the WM effect on selection are unclear. Here, the authors investigate the influence of the focus of spatial attention (i.e., diffused vs. focused) by assessing the effect of spatial precues on attentional capture by WM. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that relative to a neutral condition without memory-matching stimuli, the presence of a memory distractor can trigger attentional capture despite being entirely irrelevant for the attention task but this happened only when the item was actively maintained in WM and not when it was merely repeated. Experiments 3a, 3b and 3c showed that attentional capture by WM can be modulated by endogenous spatial pre-cueing of the incoming target of selection. The authors conclude that WM-driven capture of visual selection is dependent on the focus of spatial attention. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On the generality of the displaywide contingent orienting hypothesis: can a visual onset capture attention without top-down control settings for displaywide onset?

PubMed

Yeh, Su-Ling; Liao, Hsin-I

2010-10-01

The contingent orienting hypothesis (Folk, Remington, & Johnston, 1992) states that attentional capture is contingent on top-down control settings induced by task demands. Past studies supporting this hypothesis have identified three kinds of top-down control settings: for target-specific features, for the strategy to search for a singleton, and for visual features in the target display as a whole. Previously, we have found stimulus-driven capture by onset that was not contingent on the first two kinds of settings (Yeh & Liao, 2008). The current study aims to test the third kind: the displaywide contingent orienting hypothesis (Gibson & Kelsey, 1998). Specifically, we ask whether an onset stimulus can still capture attention in the spatial cueing paradigm when attentional control settings for the displaywide onset of the target are excluded by making all letters in the target display emerge from placeholders. Results show that a preceding uninformative onset cue still captured attention to its location in a stimulus-driven fashion, whereas a color cue captured attention only when it was contingent on the setting for displaywide color. These results raise doubts as to the generality of the displaywide contingent orienting hypothesis and help delineate the boundary conditions on this hypothesis. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Involuntary transfer of a top-down attentional set into the focus of attention: evidence from a contingent attentional capture paradigm.

PubMed

Moore, Katherine Sledge; Weissman, Daniel H

2010-08-01

In the present study, we investigated whether involuntarily directing attention to a target-colored distractor causes the corresponding attentional set to enter a limited-capacity focus of attention, thereby facilitating the identification of a subsequent target whose color matches the same attentional set. As predicted, in Experiment 1, contingent attentional capture effects from a target-colored distractor were only one half to one third as large when subsequent target identification relied on the same (vs. a different) attentional set. In Experiment 2, this effect was eliminated when all of the target colors matched the same attentional set, arguing against bottom-up perceptual priming of the distractor's color as an alternative account of our findings. In Experiment 3, this effect was reversed when a target-colored distractor appeared after the target, ruling out a feature-based interference account of our findings. We conclude that capacity limitations in working memory strongly influence contingent attentional capture when multiple attentional sets guide selection.

Eyes only? Perceiving eye contact is neither sufficient nor necessary for attentional capture by face direction.

PubMed

Böckler, Anne; van der Wel, Robrecht P R D; Welsh, Timothy N

2015-09-01

Direct eye contact and motion onset both constitute powerful cues that capture attention. Recent research suggests that (social) gaze and (non-social) motion onset influence information processing in parallel, even when combined as sudden onset direct gaze cues (i.e., faces suddenly establishing eye contact). The present study investigated the role of eye visibility for attention capture by these sudden onset face cues. To this end, face direction was manipulated (away or towards onlooker) while faces had closed eyes (eliminating visibility of eyes, Experiment 1), wore sunglasses (eliminating visible eyes, but allowing for the expectation of eyes to be open, Experiment 2), and were inverted with visible eyes (disrupting the integration of eyes and faces, Experiment 3). Participants classified targets appearing on one of four faces. Initially, two faces were oriented towards participants and two faces were oriented away from participants. Simultaneous to target presentation, one averted face became directed and one directed face became averted. Attention capture by face direction (i.e., facilitation for faces directed towards participants) was absent when eyes were closed, but present when faces wore sunglasses. Sudden onset direct faces can, hence, induce attentional capture, even when lacking eye cues. Inverted faces, by contrast, did not elicit attentional capture. Thus, when eyes cannot be integrated into a holistic face representation they are not sufficient to capture attention. Overall, the results suggest that visibility of eyes is neither necessary nor sufficient for the sudden direct face effect. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Rare targets are less susceptible to attention capture once detection has begun.

PubMed

Hon, Nicholas; Ng, Gavin; Chan, Gerald

2016-04-01

Rare or low probability targets are detected more slowly and/ or less accurately than higher probability counterparts. Various proposals have implicated perceptual and response-based processes in this deficit. Recent evidence, however, suggests that it is attentional in nature, with low probability targets requiring more attentional resources than high probability ones to detect. This difference in attentional requirements, in turn, suggests the possibility that low and high probability targets may have different susceptibilities to attention capture, which is also known to be resource-dependent. Supporting this hypothesis, we found that, once attentional resources have begun to be engaged by detection processes, low, but not high, probability targets have a reduced susceptibility to capture. Our findings speak to several issues. First, they indicate that the likelihood of attention capture occurring when a given task-relevant stimulus is being processed is dependent, to some extent, on how said stimulus is represented within mental task sets. Second, they provide added support for the idea that the behavioural deficit associated with low probability targets is attention-based. Finally, the current data point to reduced top-down biasing of target templates as a likely mechanism underlying the attentional locus of the deficit in question.

Towards a resolution of the attentional-capture debate.

PubMed

Carmel, Tomer; Lamy, Dominique

2015-12-01

The relative contributions of stimulus-driven and goal-directed control of attention have been extensively studied by investigating which irrelevant stimuli capture attention. Although much of this research has focused on color-singleton distractors, the circumstances under which these capture attention remain controversial. In search for a target with a unique known color (known-singleton search), whether singletons in an irrelevant color can be successfully ignored is a hotly debated issue. In search for a target that is not a singleton (feature search), no capture by irrelevant-color singletons is typically observed, but a reverse cueing effect was occasionally reported in the spatial-cueing paradigm. In 3 experiments, we resolve these controversies, by showing that the net spatial effect observed in the spatial-cueing paradigm reflects the sum of 3 separate effects. (a) A same-location benefit, which is determined by the match between the cue and the target colors and indexes contingent attentional capture. (b) A same-location cost, which is also determined by the match between the cue and the target colors, but occurs after selection and indexes processes related to visual working memory; and (c) task-dependent capture by singletons that occurs only when the target is consistently a singleton. Crucially, we show that the same-location cost is strongly determined by cue exposure duration, which explains previous failures to isolate it. The implications of these findings for the attentional capture debate are discussed. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Effect of distracting faces on visual selective attention in the monkey.

PubMed

Landman, Rogier; Sharma, Jitendra; Sur, Mriganka; Desimone, Robert

2014-12-16

In primates, visual stimuli with social and emotional content tend to attract attention. Attention might be captured through rapid, automatic, subcortical processing or guided by slower, more voluntary cortical processing. Here we examined whether irrelevant faces with varied emotional expressions interfere with a covert attention task in macaque monkeys. In the task, the monkeys monitored a target grating in the periphery for a subtle color change while ignoring distracters that included faces appearing elsewhere on the screen. The onset time of distracter faces before the target change, as well as their spatial proximity to the target, was varied from trial to trial. The presence of faces, especially faces with emotional expressions interfered with the task, indicating a competition for attentional resources between the task and the face stimuli. However, this interference was significant only when faces were presented for greater than 200 ms. Emotional faces also affected saccade velocity and reduced pupillary reflex. Our results indicate that the attraction of attention by emotional faces in the monkey takes a considerable amount of processing time, possibly involving cortical-subcortical interactions. Intranasal application of the hormone oxytocin ameliorated the interfering effects of faces. Together these results provide evidence for slow modulation of attention by emotional distracters, which likely involves oxytocinergic brain circuits.

Identifying a "default" visual search mode with operant conditioning.

PubMed

Kawahara, Jun-ichiro

2010-09-01

The presence of a singleton in a task-irrelevant domain can impair visual search. This impairment, known as the attentional capture depends on the set of participants. When narrowly searching for a specific feature (the feature search mode), only matching stimuli capture attention. When searching broadly (the singleton detection mode), any oddball captures attention. The present study examined which strategy represents the "default" mode using an operant conditioning approach in which participants were trained, in the absence of explicit instructions, to search for a target in an ambiguous context in which one of two modes was available. The results revealed that participants behaviorally adopted the singleton detection as the default mode but reported using the feature search mode. Conscious strategies did not eliminate capture. These results challenge the view that a conscious set always modulates capture, suggesting that the visual system tends to rely on stimulus salience to deploy attention.

Set-specific capture can be reduced by preemptively occupying a limited-capacity focus of attention.

PubMed

Moore, Katherine Sledge; Weissman, Daniel H

2011-01-01

Recent work has shown that contingent attentional capture effects can be especially large when multiple attentional sets for color guide visual search (Moore & Weissman, 2010). In particular, this research suggests that detecting a target-colored (e.g., orange) distractor leads the corresponding attentional set (e.g., identify orange letters) to enter a limited-capacity focus of attention in working memory, where it remains briefly while the distractor is being attended. Consequently, the ability to identify a differently-colored (e.g., green) target 100-300 ms later is impaired because the appropriate set (e.g., identify green letters) cannot also enter the focus of attention. In two experiments, we investigated whether such set-specific capture can be reduced by preemptively occupying the focus of attention. As predicted, a target-colored central distractor presented 233 ms before a target-colored peripheral distractor eliminated set-specific capture arising from the peripheral distractor. Moreover, this effect was observed only when the central distractor's color (e.g., orange) (a) matched a different set than the upcoming peripheral distractor's color (e.g., green) and (b) matched the same set as the upcoming central target's color (e.g., orange). We conclude that the same working memory limitations that give rise to set-specific capture can be preemptively exploited to reduce it.

Selective attention moderates the relationship between attentional capture by signals of nondrug reward and illicit drug use.

PubMed

Albertella, Lucy; Copeland, Jan; Pearson, Daniel; Watson, Poppy; Wiers, Reinout W; Le Pelley, Mike E

2017-06-01

The current study examined whether cognitive control moderates the association between (non-drug) reward-modulated attentional capture and use of alcohol and other drugs (AOD). Participants were 66 university students who completed an assessment including questions about AOD use, a visual search task to measure value-modulated attentional capture, and a goal-directed selective attention task as a measure of cognitive control. The association between the effect of value-modulated attentional capture and illicit drug use was moderated by level of cognitive control. Among participants with lower levels of cognitive control, value-modulated attentional capture was associated with illicit drug use. This was not the case among participants with higher levels of cognitive control, who instead showed a significant association between illicit drug use and self-reported impulsivity, as well as alcohol use. These results provide support for models that view addictive behaviours as resulting from interaction and competition between automatic and more reflective processes. That is, the mechanisms that ultimately drive addictive behaviour may differ between people low or high in cognitive control. This has important implications for understanding the development and maintenance of substance use disorders and potentially their treatment and prevention. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cholinergic modulation of stimulus-driven attentional capture.

PubMed

Boucart, Muriel; Michael, George Andrew; Bubicco, Giovanna; Ponchel, Amelie; Waucquier, Nawal; Deplanque, Dominique; Deguil, Julie; Bordet, Régis

2015-04-15

Distraction is one of the main problems encountered by people with degenerative diseases that are associated with reduced cortical cholinergic innervations. We examined the effects of donepezil, a cholinesterase inhibitor, on stimulus-driven attentional capture. Reflexive attention shifts to a distractor are usually elicited by abrupt peripheral changes. This bottom-up shift of attention to a salient item is thought to be the result of relatively inflexible hardwired mechanisms. Thirty young male participants were randomly allocated to one of two groups: placebo first/donepezil second session or the opposite. They were asked to locate a target appearing above and below fixation whilst a peripheral distractor moved abruptly (motion-jitter attentional capture condition) or not (baseline condition). A classical attentional capture effect was observed under placebo: moving distractors interfered with the task in slowing down response times as compared to the baseline condition with fixed distractors. Increased interference from moving distractors was found under donepezil. We suggest that attentional capture in our paradigm likely involved low level mechanisms such as automatic reflexive orienting. Peripheral motion-jitter elicited a rapid reflexive orienting response initiated by a cholinergic signal from the brainstem pedunculo-pontine nucleus that activates nicotinic receptors in the superior colliculus. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Can an auditory multi-feature optimal paradigm be used for the study of processes associated with attention capture in passive listeners?

PubMed

Tavakoli, Paniz; Campbell, Kenneth

2016-10-01

A rarely occurring and highly relevant auditory stimulus occurring outside of the current focus of attention can cause a switching of attention. Such attention capture is often studied in oddball paradigms consisting of a frequently occurring "standard" stimulus which is changed at odd times to form a "deviant". The deviant may result in the capturing of attention. An auditory ERP, the P3a, is often associated with this process. To collect a sufficient amount of data is however very time-consuming. A more multi-feature "optimal" paradigm has been proposed but it is not known if it is appropriate for the study of attention capture. An optimal paradigm was run in which 6 different rare deviants (p=.08) were separated by a standard stimulus (p=.50) and compared to results when 4 oddball paradigms were also run. A large P3a was elicited by some of the deviants in the optimal paradigm but not by others. However, very similar results were observed when separate oddball paradigms were run. The present study indicates that the optimal paradigm provides a very time-saving method to study attention capture and the P3a. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dissociating location-specific inhibition and attention shifts: evidence against the disengagement account of contingent capture.

PubMed

Anderson, Brian A; Folk, Charles L

2012-08-01

The study of attentional capture has provided a rich context for assessing the relative influence of top-down and bottom-up factors in visual perception. Some have argued that attentional capture by a salient, irrelevant stimulus is contingent on top-down attentional set (e.g., Folk, Remington, & Johnston, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 18:1030-1044, 1992). Others, however, have argued that capture is driven entirely by bottom-up salience and that top-down factors influence the postallocation speed of disengagement from the irrelevant stimulus (e.g., Theeuwes, Acta Psychologica 135:77-99, 2010a). In support of this speed-of-disengagement hypothesis, recent findings from the modified spatial-cuing paradigm show that cues carrying a no-go target property produce reverse, or negative, cuing effects, consistent with inhibition of the cue location from which attention has been very quickly disengaged (Belopolsky, Schreij, & Theeuwes, Perception, & Psychophysics, 72, 326-341, 2010). Across six experiments, we show that this inhibitory process can be dissociated from shifts of spatial attention and is, thus, not a reliable marker of capture. We conclude that the data are inconsistent with the predictions of the disengagement hypothesis.

Interactions between space-based and feature-based attention.

PubMed

Leonard, Carly J; Balestreri, Angela; Luck, Steven J

2015-02-01

Although early research suggested that attention to nonspatial features (i.e., red) was confined to stimuli appearing at an attended spatial location, more recent research has emphasized the global nature of feature-based attention. For example, a distractor sharing a target feature may capture attention even if it occurs at a task-irrelevant location. Such findings have been used to argue that feature-based attention operates independently of spatial attention. However, feature-based attention may nonetheless interact with spatial attention, yielding larger feature-based effects at attended locations than at unattended locations. The present study tested this possibility. In 2 experiments, participants viewed a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream and identified a target letter defined by its color. Target-colored distractors were presented at various task-irrelevant locations during the RSVP stream. We found that feature-driven attentional capture effects were largest when the target-colored distractor was closer to the attended location. These results demonstrate that spatial attention modulates the strength of feature-based attention capture, calling into question the prior evidence that feature-based attention operates in a global manner that is independent of spatial attention.

Task-irrelevant own-race faces capture attention: eye-tracking evidence.

PubMed

Cao, Rong; Wang, Shuzhen; Rao, Congquan; Fu, Jia

2013-04-01

To investigate attentional capture by face's race, the current study recorded saccade latencies of eye movement measurements in an inhibition of return (IOR) task. Compared to Caucasian (other-race) faces, Chinese (own-race) faces elicited longer saccade latency. This phenomenon disappeared when faces were inverted. The results indicated that own-race faces capture attention automatically with high-level configural processing. © 2013 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology © 2013 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations.

Contingent Attentional Capture by Top-Down Control Settings: Converging Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lien, Mei-Ching; Ruthruff, Eric; Goodin, Zachary; Remington, Roger W.

2008-01-01

Theories of attentional control are divided over whether the capture of spatial attention depends primarily on stimulus salience or is contingent on attentional control settings induced by task demands. The authors addressed this issue using the N2-posterior-contralateral (N2pc) effect, a component of the event-related brain potential thought to…

Is goal-directed attentional guidance just intertrial priming? A review.

PubMed

Lamy, Dominique F; Kristjánsson, Arni

2013-07-01

According to most models of selective visual attention, our goals at any given moment and saliency in the visual field determine attentional priority. But selection is not carried out in isolation--we typically track objects through space and time. This is not well captured within the distinction between goal-directed and saliency-based attentional guidance. Recent studies have shown that selection is strongly facilitated when the characteristics of the objects to be attended and of those to be ignored remain constant between consecutive selections. These studies have generated the proposal that goal-directed or top-down effects are best understood as intertrial priming effects. Here, we provide a detailed overview and critical appraisal of the arguments, experimental strategies, and findings that have been used to promote this idea, along with a review of studies providing potential counterarguments. We divide this review according to different types of attentional control settings that observers are thought to adopt during visual search: feature-based settings, dimension-based settings, and singleton detection mode. We conclude that priming accounts for considerable portions of effects attributed to top-down guidance, but that top-down guidance can be independent of intertrial priming.

Oculomotor Capture by New and Unannounced Color Singletons during Visual Search.

PubMed

Retell, James D; Venini, Dustin; Becker, Stefanie I

2015-07-01

The surprise capture hypothesis states that a stimulus will capture attention to the extent that it is preattentively available and deviates from task-expectancies. Interestingly, it has been noted by Horstmann (Psychological Science 13: 499-505. doi: 10.1111/1467-9280.00488, 2002, Human Perception and Performance 31: 1039-1060. doi: 10.1037/00961523.31.5.1039, 2005, Psychological Research, 70, 13-25, 2006) that the time course of capture by such classes of stimuli appears distinct from that of capture by expected stimuli. Specifically, attention shifts to an unexpected stimulus are delayed relative to an expected stimulus (delayed onset account). Across two experiments, we investigated this claim under conditions of unguided (Exp. 1) and guided (Exp. 2) search using eye-movements as the primary index of attentional selection. In both experiments, we found strong evidence of surprise capture for the first presentation of an unannounced color singleton. However, in both experiments the pattern of eye-movements was not consistent with a delayed onset account of attention capture. Rather, we observed costs associated with the unexpected stimulus only once the target had been selected. We propose an interference account of surprise capture to explain our data and argue that this account also can explain existing patterns of data in the literature.

Colorimetry and SERS dual-mode detection of telomerase activity: combining rapid screening with high sensitivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zong, Shenfei; Wang, Zhuyuan; Chen, Hui; Hu, Guohua; Liu, Min; Chen, Peng; Cui, Yiping

2014-01-01

As an important biomarker and therapeutic target, telomerase has attracted considerable attention concerning its detection and monitoring. Here, we present a colorimetry and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) dual-mode telomerase activity detection method, which has several distinctive advantages. First, colorimetric functionality allows rapid preliminary discrimination of telomerase activity by the naked eye. Second, the employment of SERS technique results in greatly improved detection sensitivity. Third, the combination of colorimetry and SERS into one detection system can ensure highly efficacious and sensitive screening of numerous samples. Besides, the avoidance of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) procedures further guarantees fine reliability and simplicity. Generally, the presented method is realized by an ``elongate and capture'' procedure. To be specific, gold nanoparticles modified with Raman molecules and telomeric repeat complementary oligonucleotide are employed as the colorimetric-SERS bifunctional reporting nanotag, while magnetic nanoparticles functionalized with telomerase substrate oligonucleotide are used as the capturing substrate. Telomerase can synthesize and elongate telomeric repeats onto the capturing substrate. The elongated telomeric repeats subsequently facilitate capturing of the reporting nanotag via hybridization between telomeric repeat and its complementary strand. The captured nanotags can cause a significant difference in the color and SERS intensity of the magnetically separated sediments. Thus both the color and SERS can be used as indicators of the telomerase activity. With fast screening ability and outstanding sensitivity, we anticipate that this method would greatly promote practical application of telomerase-based early-stage cancer diagnosis.As an important biomarker and therapeutic target, telomerase has attracted considerable attention concerning its detection and monitoring. Here, we present a colorimetry and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) dual-mode telomerase activity detection method, which has several distinctive advantages. First, colorimetric functionality allows rapid preliminary discrimination of telomerase activity by the naked eye. Second, the employment of SERS technique results in greatly improved detection sensitivity. Third, the combination of colorimetry and SERS into one detection system can ensure highly efficacious and sensitive screening of numerous samples. Besides, the avoidance of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) procedures further guarantees fine reliability and simplicity. Generally, the presented method is realized by an ``elongate and capture'' procedure. To be specific, gold nanoparticles modified with Raman molecules and telomeric repeat complementary oligonucleotide are employed as the colorimetric-SERS bifunctional reporting nanotag, while magnetic nanoparticles functionalized with telomerase substrate oligonucleotide are used as the capturing substrate. Telomerase can synthesize and elongate telomeric repeats onto the capturing substrate. The elongated telomeric repeats subsequently facilitate capturing of the reporting nanotag via hybridization between telomeric repeat and its complementary strand. The captured nanotags can cause a significant difference in the color and SERS intensity of the magnetically separated sediments. Thus both the color and SERS can be used as indicators of the telomerase activity. With fast screening ability and outstanding sensitivity, we anticipate that this method would greatly promote practical application of telomerase-based early-stage cancer diagnosis. Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: TEM images of individual MB@Au NPs, results of dynamic light scattering analysis and extinction spectrum obtained using colorimetry detection. See DOI: 10.1039/c3nr04942f

Contingent capture of involuntary visual attention interferes with detection of auditory stimuli

PubMed Central

Kamke, Marc R.; Harris, Jill

2014-01-01

The involuntary capture of attention by salient visual stimuli can be influenced by the behavioral goals of an observer. For example, when searching for a target item, irrelevant items that possess the target-defining characteristic capture attention more strongly than items not possessing that feature. Such contingent capture involves a shift of spatial attention toward the item with the target-defining characteristic. It is not clear, however, if the associated decrements in performance for detecting the target item are entirely due to involuntary orienting of spatial attention. To investigate whether contingent capture also involves a non-spatial interference, adult observers were presented with streams of visual and auditory stimuli and were tasked with simultaneously monitoring for targets in each modality. Visual and auditory targets could be preceded by a lateralized visual distractor that either did, or did not, possess the target-defining feature (a specific color). In agreement with the contingent capture hypothesis, target-colored distractors interfered with visual detection performance (response time and accuracy) more than distractors that did not possess the target color. Importantly, the same pattern of results was obtained for the auditory task: visual target-colored distractors interfered with sound detection. The decrement in auditory performance following a target-colored distractor suggests that contingent capture involves a source of processing interference in addition to that caused by a spatial shift of attention. Specifically, we argue that distractors possessing the target-defining characteristic enter a capacity-limited, serial stage of neural processing, which delays detection of subsequently presented stimuli regardless of the sensory modality. PMID:24920945

Contingent capture of involuntary visual attention interferes with detection of auditory stimuli.

PubMed

Kamke, Marc R; Harris, Jill

2014-01-01

The involuntary capture of attention by salient visual stimuli can be influenced by the behavioral goals of an observer. For example, when searching for a target item, irrelevant items that possess the target-defining characteristic capture attention more strongly than items not possessing that feature. Such contingent capture involves a shift of spatial attention toward the item with the target-defining characteristic. It is not clear, however, if the associated decrements in performance for detecting the target item are entirely due to involuntary orienting of spatial attention. To investigate whether contingent capture also involves a non-spatial interference, adult observers were presented with streams of visual and auditory stimuli and were tasked with simultaneously monitoring for targets in each modality. Visual and auditory targets could be preceded by a lateralized visual distractor that either did, or did not, possess the target-defining feature (a specific color). In agreement with the contingent capture hypothesis, target-colored distractors interfered with visual detection performance (response time and accuracy) more than distractors that did not possess the target color. Importantly, the same pattern of results was obtained for the auditory task: visual target-colored distractors interfered with sound detection. The decrement in auditory performance following a target-colored distractor suggests that contingent capture involves a source of processing interference in addition to that caused by a spatial shift of attention. Specifically, we argue that distractors possessing the target-defining characteristic enter a capacity-limited, serial stage of neural processing, which delays detection of subsequently presented stimuli regardless of the sensory modality.

Memory-driven attentional capture reveals the waxing and waning of working memory activation due to dual-task interference.

PubMed

Sasin, Edyta; Nieuwenstein, Mark

2016-12-01

Previous studies have shown that information held in working memory (WM) actively or as a residue of previous processing can lead to attentional capture by corresponding stimuli in the environment. Here, we compared attentional capture by goal-driven and residual WM activation and examined how these effects are affected by dual-task interference. In two experiments, participants performed an animacy judgment task for a word that they did or did not have to remember for a later recognition test. The word was followed in half of the trials by an arithmetic task that served to disrupt the WM activation of the previously processed word. Subsequently, WM-driven capture was assessed by having participants perform a single-target rapid serial visual presentation task in which a line drawing corresponding to the word was presented shortly before a target. The results showed that the line drawing captured attention irrespective of the presence of the arithmetic task when the word had to be remembered. In comparison, the animacy judgment alone resulted in capture only when the arithmetic task was absent, and this effect was equally strong as the capture effect caused by a to-be-remembered word. Taken together, these findings show that although residual and goal-driven WM activation may be equally potent in guiding attentional selection, these two forms of WM activation differ in that residual activation is overwritten by an attention-demanding task, whereas goal-driven WM activation can lead to the reinstatement of a stimulus after performing such a task.

Suppression of overt attentional capture by salient-but-irrelevant color singletons.

PubMed

Gaspelin, Nicholas; Leonard, Carly J; Luck, Steven J

2017-01-01

For more than 2 decades, researchers have debated the nature of cognitive control in the guidance of visual attention. Stimulus-driven theories claim that salient stimuli automatically capture attention, whereas goal-driven theories propose that an individual's attentional control settings determine whether salient stimuli capture attention. In the current study, we tested a hybrid account called the signal suppression hypothesis, which claims that all stimuli automatically generate a salience signal but that this signal can be actively suppressed by top-down attentional mechanisms. Previous behavioral and electrophysiological research has shown that participants can suppress covert shifts of attention to salient-but-irrelevant color singletons. In this study, we used eye-tracking methods to determine whether participants can also suppress overt shifts of attention to irrelevant singletons. We found that under conditions that promote active suppression of the irrelevant singletons, overt attention was less likely to be directed toward the salient distractors than toward nonsalient distractors. This result provides direct evidence that people can suppress salient-but-irrelevant singletons below baseline levels.

Visual Field Asymmetry in Attentional Capture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Du, Feng; Abrams, Richard A.

2010-01-01

The present study examined the spatial distribution of involuntary attentional capture over the two visual hemi-fields. A new experiment, and an analysis of three previous experiments showed that distractors in the left visual field that matched a sought-for target in color produced a much larger capture effect than identical distractors in the…

Attentional capture by alcohol-related stimuli may be activated involuntarily by top-down search goals.

PubMed

Brown, Chris R H; Duka, Theodora; Forster, Sophie

2018-04-25

Previous research has found that the attention of social drinkers is preferentially oriented towards alcohol-related stimuli (attentional capture). This is argued to play a role in escalating craving for alcohol that can result in hazardous drinking. According to incentive theories of drug addiction, the stimuli associated with the drug reward acquire learned incentive salience and grab attention. However, it is not clear whether the mechanism by which this bias is created is a voluntary or an automatic one, although some evidence suggests a stimulus-driven mechanism. Here, we test for the first time whether this attentional capture could reflect an involuntary consequence of a goal-driven mechanism. Across three experiments, participants were given search goals to detect either an alcoholic or a non-alcoholic object (target) in a stream of briefly presented objects unrelated to the target. Prior to the target, a task-irrelevant parafoveal distractor appeared. This could either be congruent or incongruent with the current search goal. Applying a meta-analysis, we combined the results across the three experiments and found consistent evidence of goal-driven attentional capture, whereby alcohol distractors impeded target detection when the search goal was for alcohol. By contrast, alcohol distractors did not interfere with target detection, whilst participants were searching for a non-alcoholic category. A separate experiment revealed that the goal-driven capture effect was not found when participants held alcohol features active in memory but did not intentionally search for them. These findings suggest a strong goal-driven account of attentional capture by alcohol cues in social drinkers.

Set-specific capture can be reduced by preemptively occupying a limited-capacity focus of attention

PubMed Central

Moore, Katherine Sledge; Weissman, Daniel H.

2011-01-01

Recent work has shown that contingent attentional capture effects can be especially large when multiple attentional sets for color guide visual search (Moore & Weissman, 2010). In particular, this research suggests that detecting a target-colored (e.g., orange) distractor leads the corresponding attentional set (e.g., identify orange letters) to enter a limited-capacity focus of attention in working memory, where it remains briefly while the distractor is being attended. Consequently, the ability to identify a differently-colored (e.g., green) target 100–300 ms later is impaired because the appropriate set (e.g., identify green letters) cannot also enter the focus of attention. In two experiments, we investigated whether such set-specific capture can be reduced by preemptively occupying the focus of attention. As predicted, a target-colored central distractor presented 233 ms before a target-colored peripheral distractor eliminated set-specific capture arising from the peripheral distractor. Moreover, this effect was observed only when the central distractor’s color (e.g., orange) (a) matched a different set than the upcoming peripheral distractor’s color (e.g., green) and (b) matched the same set as the upcoming central target’s color (e.g., orange). We conclude that the same working memory limitations that give rise to set-specific capture can be preemptively exploited to reduce it. PMID:21779149

All I saw was the cake. Hunger effects on attentional capture by visual food cues.

PubMed

Piech, Richard M; Pastorino, Michael T; Zald, David H

2010-06-01

While effects of hunger on motivation and food reward value are well-established, far less is known about the effects of hunger on cognitive processes. Here, we deployed the emotional blink of attention paradigm to investigate the impact of visual food cues on attentional capture under conditions of hunger and satiety. Participants were asked to detect targets which appeared in a rapid visual stream after different types of task irrelevant distractors. We observed that food stimuli acquired increased power to capture attention and prevent target detection when participants were hungry. This occurred despite monetary incentives to perform well. Our findings suggest an attentional mechanism through which hunger heightens perception of food cues. As an objective behavioral marker of the attentional sensitivity to food cues, the emotional attentional blink paradigm may provide a useful technique for studying individual differences, and state manipulations in the sensitivity to food cues. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Oculomotor capture by supraliminal and subliminal onset singletons: the role of contrast polarity.

PubMed

Weichselbaum, Hanna; Fuchs, Isabella; Ansorge, Ulrich

2014-07-01

According to a top-down explanation of subliminal oculomotor capture, only subliminal distractors with a contrast polarity matching that of the searched-for targets should capture attention. For instance, when looking for white targets only subliminal white but not black distractors should capture attention. In contrast, according to a bottom-up explanation of such capture effects, subliminal distractors with a contrast polarity different to that of the searched-for targets should also capture attention. For instance, even when looking for white targets, subliminal black distractors should capture attention. Here, we used subliminal singleton-onset distractors in the same vertical hemifield as the target versus singleton-onset distractors in the opposite vertical field to the target, and tested whether oculomotor capture by these distractors depended on a match between the searched-for target contrasts and the distractor contrasts, by measuring saccade latency, saccade trajectory deviation, and saccade endpoint deviation. We found evidence for oculomotor capture: subliminal distractors in the opposite field delayed saccade execution towards the target. This delay was found in comparison to subliminal distractors in the same hemifield as the target. In line with a bottom-up explanation, this delay was independent of the similarity between the distractor contrast polarity and the searched-for target contrast polarity. Together with the subliminality of the distractors, the experiment confirmed bottom-up oculomotor capture by subliminal singleton-onsets. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Traffic Sign Inventory from Google Street View Images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsai, Victor J. D.; Chen, Jyun-Han; Huang, Hsun-Sheng

2016-06-01

Traffic sign detection and recognition (TSDR) has drawn considerable attention on developing intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and autonomous vehicle driving systems (AVDS) since 1980's. Unlikely to the general TSDR systems that deal with real-time images captured by the in-vehicle cameras, this research aims on developing techniques for detecting, extracting, and positioning of traffic signs from Google Street View (GSV) images along user-selected routes for low-cost, volumetric and quick establishment of the traffic sign infrastructural database that may be associated with Google Maps. The framework and techniques employed in the proposed system are described.

Visual attention to food cues in obesity: an eye-tracking study.

PubMed

Doolan, Katy J; Breslin, Gavin; Hanna, Donncha; Murphy, Kate; Gallagher, Alison M

2014-12-01

Based on the theory of incentive sensitization, the aim of this study was to investigate differences in attentional processing of food-related visual cues between normal-weight and overweight/obese males and females. Twenty-six normal-weight (14M, 12F) and 26 overweight/obese (14M, 12F) adults completed a visual probe task and an eye-tracking paradigm. Reaction times and eye movements to food and control images were collected during both a fasted and fed condition in a counterbalanced design. Participants had greater visual attention towards high-energy-density food images compared to low-energy-density food images regardless of hunger condition. This was most pronounced in overweight/obese males who had significantly greater maintained attention towards high-energy-density food images when compared with their normal-weight counterparts however no between weight group differences were observed for female participants. High-energy-density food images appear to capture visual attention more readily than low-energy-density food images. Results also suggest the possibility of an altered visual food cue-associated reward system in overweight/obese males. Attentional processing of food cues may play a role in eating behaviors thus should be taken into consideration as part of an integrated approach to curbing obesity. © 2014 The Obesity Society.

Attentional Capture by Deviant Sounds: A Noncontingent Form of Auditory Distraction?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vachon, François; Labonté, Katherine; Marsh, John E.

2017-01-01

The occurrence of an unexpected, infrequent sound in an otherwise homogeneous auditory background tends to disrupt the ongoing cognitive task. This "deviation effect" is typically explained in terms of attentional capture whereby the deviant sound draws attention away from the focal activity, regardless of the nature of this activity.…

Facial Expression Influences Face Identity Recognition During the Attentional Blink

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Emotional stimuli (e.g., negative facial expressions) enjoy prioritized memory access when task relevant, consistent with their ability to capture attention. Whether emotional expression also impacts on memory access when task-irrelevant is important for arbitrating between feature-based and object-based attentional capture. Here, the authors address this question in 3 experiments using an attentional blink task with face photographs as first and second target (T1, T2). They demonstrate reduced neutral T2 identity recognition after angry or happy T1 expression, compared to neutral T1, and this supports attentional capture by a task-irrelevant feature. Crucially, after neutral T1, T2 identity recognition was enhanced and not suppressed when T2 was angry—suggesting that attentional capture by this task-irrelevant feature may be object-based and not feature-based. As an unexpected finding, both angry and happy facial expressions suppress memory access for competing objects, but only angry facial expression enjoyed privileged memory access. This could imply that these 2 processes are relatively independent from one another. PMID:25286076

Facial expression influences face identity recognition during the attentional blink.

PubMed

Bach, Dominik R; Schmidt-Daffy, Martin; Dolan, Raymond J

2014-12-01

Emotional stimuli (e.g., negative facial expressions) enjoy prioritized memory access when task relevant, consistent with their ability to capture attention. Whether emotional expression also impacts on memory access when task-irrelevant is important for arbitrating between feature-based and object-based attentional capture. Here, the authors address this question in 3 experiments using an attentional blink task with face photographs as first and second target (T1, T2). They demonstrate reduced neutral T2 identity recognition after angry or happy T1 expression, compared to neutral T1, and this supports attentional capture by a task-irrelevant feature. Crucially, after neutral T1, T2 identity recognition was enhanced and not suppressed when T2 was angry-suggesting that attentional capture by this task-irrelevant feature may be object-based and not feature-based. As an unexpected finding, both angry and happy facial expressions suppress memory access for competing objects, but only angry facial expression enjoyed privileged memory access. This could imply that these 2 processes are relatively independent from one another.

Auditory attentional capture during serial recall: violations at encoding of an algorithm-based neural model?

PubMed

Hughes, Robert W; Vachon, François; Jones, Dylan M

2005-07-01

A novel attentional capture effect is reported in which visual-verbal serial recall was disrupted if a single deviation in the interstimulus interval occurred within otherwise regularly presented task-irrelevant spoken items. The degree of disruption was the same whether the temporal deviant was embedded in a sequence made up of a repeating item or a sequence of changing items. Moreover, the effect was evident during the presentation of the to-be-remembered sequence but not during rehearsal just prior to recall, suggesting that the encoding of sequences is particularly susceptible. The results suggest that attentional capture is due to a violation of an algorithm rather than an aggregate-based neural model and further undermine an attentional capture-based account of the classical changing-state irrelevant sound effect. ((c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).

Smartphone Spectrometers

PubMed Central

Willmott, Jon R.; Mims, Forrest M.; Parisi, Alfio V.

2018-01-01

Smartphones are playing an increasing role in the sciences, owing to the ubiquitous proliferation of these devices, their relatively low cost, increasing processing power and their suitability for integrated data acquisition and processing in a ‘lab in a phone’ capacity. There is furthermore the potential to deploy these units as nodes within Internet of Things architectures, enabling massive networked data capture. Hitherto, considerable attention has been focused on imaging applications of these devices. However, within just the last few years, another possibility has emerged: to use smartphones as a means of capturing spectra, mostly by coupling various classes of fore-optics to these units with data capture achieved using the smartphone camera. These highly novel approaches have the potential to become widely adopted across a broad range of scientific e.g., biomedical, chemical and agricultural application areas. In this review, we detail the exciting recent development of smartphone spectrometer hardware, in addition to covering applications to which these units have been deployed, hitherto. The paper also points forward to the potentially highly influential impacts that such units could have on the sciences in the coming decades. PMID:29342899

Numerical study of dam-break induced tsunami-like bore with a hump of different slopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Du; Zhao, Xi-zeng; Zhang, Da-ke; Chen, Yong

2017-12-01

Numerical simulation of dam-break wave, as an imitation of tsunami hydraulic bore, with a hump of different slopes is performed in this paper using an in-house code, named a Constrained Interpolation Profile (CIP)-based model. The model is built on a Cartesian grid system with the Navier Stokes equations using a CIP method for the flow solver, and employs an immersed boundary method (IBM) for the treatment of solid body boundary. A more accurate interface capturing scheme, the Tangent of hyperbola for interface capturing/Slope weighting (THINC/SW) scheme, is adopted as the interface capturing method. Then, the CIP-based model is applied to simulate the dam break flow problem in a bumpy channel. Considerable attention is paid to the spilling type reflected bore, the following spilling type wave breaking, free surface profiles and water level variations over time. Computations are compared with available experimental data and other numerical results quantitatively and qualitatively. Further investigation is conducted to analyze the influence of variable slopes on the flow features of the tsunami-like bore.

Automatic priming of attentional control by relevant colors.

PubMed

Ansorge, Ulrich; Becker, Stefanie I

2012-01-01

We tested whether color word cues automatically primed attentional control settings during visual search, or whether color words were used in a strategic manner for the control of attention. In Experiment 1, we used color words as cues that were informative or uninformative with respect to the target color. Regardless of the cue's informativeness, distractors similar to the color cue captured more attention. In Experiment 2, the participants either indicated their expectation about the target color or recalled the last target color, which was uncorrelated with the present target color. We observed more attentional capture by distractors that were similar to the participants' predictions and recollections, but no difference between effects of the recollected and predicted colors. In Experiment 3, we used 100%-informative word cues that were congruent with the predicted target color (e.g., the word "red" informed that the target would be red) or incongruent with the predicted target color (e.g., the word "green" informed that the target would be red) and found that informative incongruent word cues primed attention capture by a word-similar distractor. Together, the results suggest that word cues (Exps. 1 and 3) and color representations (Exp. 2) primed attention capture in an automatic manner. This indicates that color cues automatically primed temporary adjustments in attention control settings.

Context and competition in the capture of visual attention.

PubMed

Hickey, Clayton; Theeuwes, Jan

2011-10-01

Competition-based models of visual attention propose that perceptual ambiguity is resolved through inhibition, which is stronger when objects share a greater number of neural receptive fields (RFs). According to this theory, the misallocation of attention to a salient distractor--that is, the capture of attention--can be indexed in RF-scaled interference costs. We used this pattern to investigate distractor-related costs in visual search across several manipulations of temporal context. Distractor costs are generally larger under circumstances in which the distractor can be defined by features that have recently characterised the target, suggesting that capture occurs in these trials. However, our results show that search for a target in the presence of a salient distractor also produces RF-scaled costs when the features defining the target and distractor do not vary from trial to trial. Contextual differences in distractor costs appear to reflect something other than capture, perhaps a qualitative difference in the type of attentional mechanism deployed to the distractor.

Motion onset does not capture attention when subsequent motion is "smooth".

PubMed

Sunny, Meera Mary; von Mühlenen, Adrian

2011-12-01

Previous research on the attentional effects of moving objects has shown that motion per se does not capture attention. However, in later studies it was argued that the onset of motion does capture attention. Here, we show that this motion-onset effect critically depends on motion jerkiness--that is, the rate at which the moving stimulus is refreshed. Experiment 1 used search displays with a static, a motion-onset, and an abrupt-onset stimulus, while systematically varying the refresh rate of the moving stimulus. The results showed that motion onset only captures attention when subsequent motion is jerky (8 and 17 Hz), not when it is smooth (33 and 100 Hz). Experiment 2 replaced motion onset with continuous motion, showing that motion jerkiness does not affect how continuous motion is processed. These findings do not support accounts that assume a special role for motion onset, but they are in line with the more general unique-event account.

Does oculomotor readiness mediate exogenous capture of visual attention?

PubMed

MacLean, Gregory H; Klein, Raymond M; Hilchey, Matthew D

2015-10-01

The oculomotor readiness hypothesis makes 2 predictions: Shifts in covert attention are accompanied by preparedness to move one's eyes to the attended region, and preparedness to move one's eyes to a region in space is accompanied by a shift in covert attention to the prepared location. Both predictions have been disconfirmed using an endogenous attention task. In the 2 experiments presented here, the same 2 predictions were tested using an exogenous attention task. It was found that participants experienced covert capture without accompanying oculomotor activation and experienced oculomotor activation without accompanying covert capture. While under everyday conditions the overt and covert orienting systems may be strongly linked, apparently they can nonetheless operate with a high degree of independence from one another. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Role of Frontal Cortex in Attentional Capture by Singleton Distractors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Fockert, Jan W.; Theeuwes, Jan

2012-01-01

The role of frontal cortex in selective attention to visual distractors was examined in an attentional capture task in which participants searched for a unique shape in the presence or absence of an additional colour singleton distractor. The presence of the additional singleton was associated with slower behavioural responses to the shape target,…

A Static Color Discontinuity Can Capture Spatial Attention when the Target Is an Abrupt-Onset Singleton

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burnham, Bryan R.; Neely, James H.

2008-01-01

C. L. Folk, R. W. Remington, and J. C. Johnston's (1992) contingent involuntary orienting hypothesis states that a salient visual feature will involuntarily capture attention only when the observer's attentional set includes similar features. In four experiments, when the target's relevant feature was its being an abruptly onset singleton,…

Semantic and Affective Salience: The Role of Meaning and Preference in Attentional Capture and Disengagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biggs, Adam T.; Kreager, Ryan D.; Gibson, Bradley S.; Villano, Michael; Crowell, Charles R.

2012-01-01

Emotion appears to have a substantial impact on a wide variety of attentional functions. However, stimuli that elicit affective responses also tend to be meaningful. Here we attempted to disentangle the effects of meaning from the effects of affect on attentional capture by irrelevant distractors. Experiment 1 used a previously unfamiliar…

Problems Inhibiting Attentional Capture by Irrelevant Stimuli in Patients with Frontotemporal Dementia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Piquard, Ambre; Lacomblez, Lucette; Derouesne, Christian; Sieroff, Eric

2009-01-01

We studied the role of the frontal lobes in orienting spatial attention and inhibiting attentional capture by goal-irrelevant stimuli, using a spatial cueing method in patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Two blocks of trials were presented, one with non-predictive cues and the other with counter-predictive cues. FTD patients showed a…

Value-Driven Attentional Capture is Modulated by Spatial Context

PubMed Central

Anderson, Brian A.

2014-01-01

When stimuli are associated with reward outcome, their visual features acquire high attentional priority such that stimuli possessing those features involuntarily capture attention. Whether a particular feature is predictive of reward, however, will vary with a number of contextual factors. One such factor is spatial location: for example, red berries are likely to be found in low-lying bushes, whereas yellow bananas are likely to be found on treetops. In the present study, I explore whether the attentional priority afforded to reward-associated features is modulated by such location-based contingencies. The results demonstrate that when a stimulus feature is associated with a reward outcome in one spatial location but not another, attentional capture by that feature is selective to when it appears in the rewarded location. This finding provides insight into how reward learning effectively modulates attention in an environment with complex stimulus–reward contingencies, thereby supporting efficient foraging. PMID:26069450

Can we "apply" the findings of Forster and Lavie (2008)? On the generalizability of attentional capture effects under varying levels of perceptual load.

PubMed

Lleras, Alejandro; Chu, Hengqing; Buetti, Simona

2017-06-01

Perceptual Load theory states that the degree of perceptual load on a display determines the amount of leftover attentional resources that the system can use to process distracting information. An important corollary of this theory is that the amount of perceptual load determines the vulnerability of the attention system to being captured by completely irrelevant stimuli, predicting larger amounts of capture with low perceptual load than with high perceptual load. This prediction was first confirmed by Forster and Lavie (2008). Here, we report 6 experiments that followed up on those earlier results, where we find that in many cases, the opposite pattern is obtained: attentional capture increased with increasing perceptual load. Given the lack of generalizability of the theory to new experimental contexts with fairly minor methodological differences, we conclude that Perceptual Load may not be a useful framework for understanding attentional capture. The theoretical and applied importance of these findings is discussed. In particular, we caution against using this theory in applied tasks and settings because best-use recommendations stemming from this theory regarding strategies to decrease distractibility may in fact produce the opposite effect: an increase in distractibility (with distractibility being indexed by the magnitude of the capture effect). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Is attentional prioritisation of infant faces unique in humans?: Comparative demonstrations by modified dot-probe task in monkeys.

PubMed

Koda, Hiroki; Sato, Anna; Kato, Akemi

2013-09-01

Humans innately perceive infantile features as cute. The ethologist Konrad Lorenz proposed that the infantile features of mammals and birds, known as the baby schema (kindchenschema), motivate caretaking behaviour. As biologically relevant stimuli, newborns are likely to be processed specially in terms of visual attention, perception, and cognition. Recent demonstrations on human participants have shown visual attentional prioritisation to newborn faces (i.e., newborn faces capture visual attention). Although characteristics equivalent to those found in the faces of human infants are found in nonhuman primates, attentional capture by newborn faces has not been tested in nonhuman primates. We examined whether conspecific newborn faces captured the visual attention of two Japanese monkeys using a target-detection task based on dot-probe tasks commonly used in human visual attention studies. Although visual cues enhanced target detection in subject monkeys, our results, unlike those for humans, showed no evidence of an attentional prioritisation for newborn faces by monkeys. Our demonstrations showed the validity of dot-probe task for visual attention studies in monkeys and propose a novel approach to bridge the gap between human and nonhuman primate social cognition research. This suggests that attentional capture by newborn faces is not common to macaques, but it is unclear if nursing experiences influence their perception and recognition of infantile appraisal stimuli. We need additional comparative studies to reveal the evolutionary origins of baby-schema perception and recognition. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Alcohol Warning Label Awareness and Attention: A Multi-method Study.

PubMed

Pham, Cuong; Rundle-Thiele, Sharyn; Parkinson, Joy; Li, Shanshi

2018-01-01

Evaluation of alcohol warning labels requires careful consideration ensuring that research captures more than awareness given that labels may not be prominent enough to attract attention. This study investigates attention of current in market alcohol warning labels and examines whether attention can be enhanced through theoretically informed design. Attention scores obtained through self-report methods are compared to objective measures (eye-tracking). A multi-method experimental design was used delivering four conditions, namely control, colour, size and colour and size. The first study (n = 559) involved a self-report survey to measure attention. The second study (n = 87) utilized eye-tracking to measure fixation count and duration and time to first fixation. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was utilized. Eye-tracking identified that 60% of participants looked at the current in market alcohol warning label while 81% looked at the optimized design (larger and red). In line with observed attention self-reported attention increased for the optimized design. The current study casts doubt on dominant practices (largely self-report), which have been used to evaluate alcohol warning labels. Awareness cannot be used to assess warning label effectiveness in isolation in cases where attention does not occur 100% of the time. Mixed methods permit objective data collection methodologies to be triangulated with surveys to assess warning label effectiveness. Attention should be incorporated as a measure in warning label effectiveness evaluations. Colour and size changes to the existing Australian warning labels aided by theoretically informed design increased attention. © The Author 2017. Medical Council on Alcohol and Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Automatic guidance of attention during real-world visual search.

PubMed

Seidl-Rathkopf, Katharina N; Turk-Browne, Nicholas B; Kastner, Sabine

2015-08-01

Looking for objects in cluttered natural environments is a frequent task in everyday life. This process can be difficult, because the features, locations, and times of appearance of relevant objects often are not known in advance. Thus, a mechanism by which attention is automatically biased toward information that is potentially relevant may be helpful. We tested for such a mechanism across five experiments by engaging participants in real-world visual search and then assessing attentional capture for information that was related to the search set but was otherwise irrelevant. Isolated objects captured attention while preparing to search for objects from the same category embedded in a scene, as revealed by lower detection performance (Experiment 1A). This capture effect was driven by a central processing bottleneck rather than the withdrawal of spatial attention (Experiment 1B), occurred automatically even in a secondary task (Experiment 2A), and reflected enhancement of matching information rather than suppression of nonmatching information (Experiment 2B). Finally, attentional capture extended to objects that were semantically associated with the target category (Experiment 3). We conclude that attention is efficiently drawn towards a wide range of information that may be relevant for an upcoming real-world visual search. This mechanism may be adaptive, allowing us to find information useful for our behavioral goals in the face of uncertainty.

Context-dependent control over attentional capture

PubMed Central

Cosman, Joshua D.; Vecera, Shaun P.

2014-01-01

A number of studies have demonstrated that the likelihood of a salient item capturing attention is dependent on the “attentional set” an individual employs in a given situation. The instantiation of an attentional set is often viewed as a strategic, voluntary process, relying on working memory systems that represent immediate task priorities. However, influential theories of attention and automaticity propose that goal-directed control can operate more or less automatically on the basis of longer-term task representations, a notion supported by a number of recent studies. Here, we provide evidence that longer-term contextual learning can rapidly and automatically influence the instantiation of a given attentional set. Observers learned associations between specific attentional sets and specific task-irrelevant background scenes during a training session, and in the ensuing test session simply reinstating particular scenes on a trial by trial basis biased observers to employ the associated attentional set. This directly influenced the magnitude of attentional capture, suggesting that memory for the context in which a task is performed can play an important role in the ability to instantiate a particular attentional set and overcome distraction by salient, task-irrelevant information. PMID:23025581

Moving to Capture Children's Attention: Developing a Methodology for Measuring Visuomotor Attention.

PubMed

Hill, Liam J B; Coats, Rachel O; Mushtaq, Faisal; Williams, Justin H G; Aucott, Lorna S; Mon-Williams, Mark

2016-01-01

Attention underpins many activities integral to a child's development. However, methodological limitations currently make large-scale assessment of children's attentional skill impractical, costly and lacking in ecological validity. Consequently we developed a measure of 'Visual Motor Attention' (VMA)-a construct defined as the ability to sustain and adapt visuomotor behaviour in response to task-relevant visual information. In a series of experiments, we evaluated the capability of our method to measure attentional processes and their contributions in guiding visuomotor behaviour. Experiment 1 established the method's core features (ability to track stimuli moving on a tablet-computer screen with a hand-held stylus) and demonstrated its sensitivity to principled manipulations in adults' attentional load. Experiment 2 standardised a format suitable for use with children and showed construct validity by capturing developmental changes in executive attention processes. Experiment 3 tested the hypothesis that children with and without coordination difficulties would show qualitatively different response patterns, finding an interaction between the cognitive and motor factors underpinning responses. Experiment 4 identified associations between VMA performance and existing standardised attention assessments and thereby confirmed convergent validity. These results establish a novel approach to measuring childhood attention that can produce meaningful functional assessments that capture how attention operates in an ecologically valid context (i.e. attention's specific contribution to visuomanual action).

How getting noticed helps getting on: successful attention capture doubles children's cooperative play

PubMed Central

Yuill, Nicola; Hinske, Steve; Williams, Sophie E.; Leith, Georgia

2014-01-01

Cooperative social interaction is a complex skill that involves maintaining shared attention and continually negotiating a common frame of reference. Privileged in human evolution, cooperation provides support for the development of social-cognitive skills. We hypothesize that providing audio support for capturing playmates' attention will increase cooperative play in groups of young children. Attention capture was manipulated via an audio-augmented toy to boost children's attention bids. Study 1 (48 6- to 11-year-olds) showed that the augmented toy yielded significantly more cooperative play in triads compared to the same toy without augmentation. In Study 2 (33 7- to 9-year-olds) the augmented toy supported greater success of attention bids, which were associated with longer cooperative play, associated in turn with better group narratives. The results show how cooperation requires moment-by-moment coordination of attention and how we can manipulate environments to reveal and support mechanisms of social interaction. Our findings have implications for understanding the role of joint attention in the development of cooperative action and shared understanding. PMID:24904453

Contingent capture of visual-spatial attention depends on capacity-limited central mechanisms: evidence from human electrophysiology and the psychological refractory period.

PubMed

Brisson, Benoit; Leblanc, Emilie; Jolicoeur, Pierre

2009-02-01

It has recently been demonstrated that a lateralized distractor that matches the individual's top-down control settings elicits an N2pc wave, an electrophysiological index of the focus of visual-spatial attention, indicating that contingent capture has a visual-spatial locus. Here, we investigated whether contingent capture required capacity-limited central resources by incorporating a contingent capture task as the second task of a psychological refractory period (PRP) dual-task paradigm. The N2pc was used to monitor where observers were attending while they performed concurrent central processing known to cause the PRP effect. The N2pc elicited by the lateralized distractor that matched the top-down control settings was attenuated in high concurrent central load conditions, indicating that although involuntary, the deployment of visual-spatial attention occurring during contingent capture depends on capacity-limited central resources.

Contingent attentional capture across multiple feature dimensions in a temporal search task.

PubMed

Ito, Motohiro; Kawahara, Jun I

2016-01-01

The present study examined whether attention can be flexibly controlled to monitor two different feature dimensions (shape and color) in a temporal search task. Specifically, we investigated the occurrence of contingent attentional capture (i.e., interference from task-relevant distractors) and resulting set reconfiguration (i.e., enhancement of single task-relevant set). If observers can restrict searches to a specific value for each relevant feature dimension independently, the capture and reconfiguration effect should only occur when the single relevant distractor in each dimension appears. Participants identified a target letter surrounded by a non-green square or a non-square green frame. The results revealed contingent attentional capture, as target identification accuracy was lower when the distractor contained a target-defining feature than when it contained a nontarget feature. Resulting set reconfiguration was also obtained in that accuracy was superior when the current target's feature (e.g., shape) corresponded to the defining feature of the present distractor (shape) than when the current target's feature did not match the distractor's feature (color). This enhancement was not due to perceptual priming. The present study demonstrated that the principles of contingent attentional capture and resulting set reconfiguration held even when multiple target feature dimensions were monitored. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Exogenous attention can be counter-selective: onset cues disrupt sensitivity to color changes.

PubMed

Müller-Plath, Gisela; Klöckner, Nils

2014-03-01

In peripheral spatial cueing paradigms, exogenous attentional capture is commonly observed after salient onset cues or with cues contingent on target characteristics. We proposed that exogenously captured attention disrupts the selectivity to target features. We tested this by experimentally emulating the everyday observation that in a viewing situation in which the observer is monitoring a stationary display fort change to occur, the onset of a salient stimulus (onset cue) or a change in a stationary stimulus similar to the expected one (contingent cue) has a distracting effect. As predicted, we found that both types of cues reduced the target detection sensitivity but enhanced the bias to respond in a go-nogo-paradigm. With the onset cue, the sensitivity loss was more pronounced at the side of the cue, whereas the contingent cue affected both sides likewise. Moreover, the effects of the onset cue interacted with the task difficulty: the more selectivity a task required the more immune it was against disruption, but the more likely was a response. We concluded that onset capture disrupts selective attention by adding noise to the processing of the target location. The effects of contingent capture could be explained with cue-target confounding. Finally, we suggest a new model of attentional capture in which exogenous and endogenous components interact in a dynamic way.

Heightened attentional capture by visual food stimuli in anorexia nervosa.

PubMed

Neimeijer, Renate A M; Roefs, Anne; de Jong, Peter J

2017-08-01

The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that anorexia nervosa (AN) patients are relatively insensitive to the attentional capture of visual food stimuli. Attentional avoidance of food might help AN patients to prevent more elaborate processing of food stimuli and the subsequent generation of craving, which might enable AN patients to maintain their strict diet. Participants were 66 restrictive AN spectrum patients and 55 healthy controls. A single-target rapid serial visual presentation task was used with food and disorder-neutral cues as critical distracter stimuli and disorder-neutral pictures as target stimuli. AN spectrum patients showed diminished task performance when visual food cues were presented in close temporal proximity of the to-be-identified target. In contrast to our hypothesis, results indicate that food cues automatically capture AN spectrum patients' attention. One explanation could be that the enhanced attentional capture of food cues in AN is driven by the relatively high threat value of food items in AN. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Contingent capture of involuntary visual spatial attention does not differ between normally hearing children and proficient cochlear implant users.

PubMed

Kamke, Marc R; Van Luyn, Jeanette; Constantinescu, Gabriella; Harris, Jill

2014-01-01

Evidence suggests that deafness-induced changes in visual perception, cognition and attention may compensate for a hearing loss. Such alterations, however, may also negatively influence adaptation to a cochlear implant. This study investigated whether involuntary attentional capture by salient visual stimuli is altered in children who use a cochlear implant. Thirteen experienced implant users (aged 8-16 years) and age-matched normally hearing children were presented with a rapid sequence of simultaneous visual and auditory events. Participants were tasked with detecting numbers presented in a specified color and identifying a change in the tonal frequency whilst ignoring irrelevant visual distractors. Compared to visual distractors that did not possess the target-defining characteristic, target-colored distractors were associated with a decrement in visual performance (response time and accuracy), demonstrating a contingent capture of involuntary attention. Visual distractors did not, however, impair auditory task performance. Importantly, detection performance for the visual and auditory targets did not differ between the groups. These results suggest that proficient cochlear implant users demonstrate normal capture of visuospatial attention by stimuli that match top-down control settings.

The Effect of Deep Brain Stimulation Therapy on Fear-Related Capture of Attention in Parkinson's Disease and Essential Tremor: A Comparison to Healthy Individuals.

PubMed

Camalier, Corrie R; McHugo, Maureen; Zald, David H; Neimat, Joseph S

2018-01-01

In addition to motor symptoms, Parkinson's disease (PD) involves significant non-motor sequelae, including disruptions in cognitive and emotional processing. Fear recognition appears to be affected both by the course of the disease and by a common interventional therapy, deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS). Here, we examined if these effects extend to other aspects of emotional processing, such as attentional capture by negative emotional stimuli. Performance on an emotional attentional blink (EAB) paradigm, a common paradigm used to study emotional capture of attention, was examined in a cohort of individuals with PD, both on and off STN-DBS therapy (n=20). To contrast effects of healthy aging and other movement disorder and DBS targets, we also examined performance in a healthy elderly (n=20) and young (n=18) sample on the same task, and a sample diagnosed with Essential Tremor (ET) undergoing therapeutic deep brain stimulation of the ventral-intermediate nucleus (VIM-DBS, n=18). All four groups showed a robust attentional capture of emotional stimuli, irrespective of aging processes, movement disorder diagnosis, or stimulation. PD patients on average had overall worse performance, but this decrement in performance was not related to the emotional capture of attention. PD patients exhibited a robust EAB, indicating that the ability of emotion to direct attention remains intact in PD. Congruent with other recent data, these findings suggest that fear recognition deficits in PD may instead reflect a highly specific problem in recognition, rather than a general deficit in emotional processing of fearful stimuli.

Contingent capture can occur at specific feature values: behavioral and electrophysiological evidence.

PubMed

Jiao, Jun; Zhao, Guang; Wang, Qi; Zhang, Kan; Li, Hong; Sun, Hong-Jin; Liu, Qiang

2013-02-01

The notion that attentional top-down control can be tuned to a stimulus feature is widely accepted. Although previous studies suggested that the stimulus-driven attentional capture could be contingent on top-down attentional control settings, it was uncertain whether contingent capture can occur at a specific feature value. Three experiments were conducted to address this issue using both behavioral and ERPs measures. Participants were required to respond to one color singleton in the search display (target) but refrain from responding to the search display containing another color singleton (nontarget). When target and nontarget belonged to different color categories (Experiment 1), only the target-color cue and within category irrelevant-color cue elicited the significant cue validity effect (i.e. RTs were shorter when the target was presented at the same location as the preceding cue rather than at a different location); they also lead to a robust N2pc effect, indicative of attention-capture. In addition, these two cue types had similar attention-capturing capacity. However, when target and nontarget belonged to the same color category (Experiments 2 and 3), only the target-color cue elicited the significant cue validity effect and the robust N2pc effect. The same within category irrelevant-color cue no longer elicited the cue validity effect, and the N2pc effect was also attenuated. Present findings suggest that contingent capture can occur at a specific feature value. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Review of numerical methods for simulation of the aortic root: Present and future directions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohammadi, Hossein; Cartier, Raymond; Mongrain, Rosaire

2016-05-01

Heart valvular disease is still one of the main causes of mortality and morbidity in develop countries. Numerical modeling has gained considerable attention in studying hemodynamic conditions associated with valve abnormalities. Simulating the large displacement of the valve in the course of the cardiac cycle needs a well-suited numerical method to capture the natural biomechanical phenomena which happens in the valve. The paper aims to review the principal progress of the numerical approaches for studying the hemodynamic of the aortic valve. In addition, the future directions of the current approaches as well as their potential clinical applications are discussed.

Electron Capture in Slow Collisions of Si4+ With Atomic Hydrogen

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Joseph, D. C.; Gu, J. P.; Saha, B. C.

2009-10-01

In recent years the charge transfer involving Si4+ and H at low energies has drawn considerable attention both theoretically and experimentally due to its importance not only in astronomical environments but also in modern semiconductor industries. Accurate information regarding its molecular structures and interactions are essential to understand the low energy collision dynamics. Ab initio calculations are performed using the multireference single- and double-excitation configuration-interaction (MRD-CI) method to evaluate potential energies. State selective cross sections are calculate using fully quantum and semi-classical molecular-orbital close coupling (MOCC) methods in the adiabatic representation. Detail results will be presented in the conference.

Fair balance in direct-to-consumer antidepressant print and television advertising, 1995-2007.

PubMed

Avery, Rosemary J; Eisenberg, Matthew; Simon, Kosali I

2012-01-01

The authors evaluated fair balance in the presentation of risks and benefits in a large sample of direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription antidepressant medications appearing in magazines (1995-2006) and television (1999-2007) to assess how well they meet U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines. Using content analysis to capture relevant dimensions of the ads, results indicated that (a) considerably less attention is given to risks relative to benefits and (b) implicit ad content favors communication of drug benefits over risks, but that fair balance in direct-to-consumer ads has improved over time. The authors discuss policy implications and explore future research directions.

Aging and involuntary attention capture: electrophysiological evidence for preserved attentional control with advanced age.

PubMed

Lien, Mei-Ching; Gemperle, Alison; Ruthruff, Eric

2011-03-01

The present study examined whether people become more susceptible to capture by salient objects as they age. Participants searched a target display for a letter in a specific color and indicated its identity. In Experiment 1, this target display was preceded by a non-informative cue display containing one target-color box, one ignored-color box, and two white boxes. On half of the trials, this cue display also contained a salient-but-irrelevant abrupt onset. To assess capture by the target-color cue, we used the N2pc component of the event-related potential, thought to reflect attentional allocation to the left or right visual field. The target-color box in the cue display produced a substantial N2pc effect for younger adults and, most importantly, this effect was not diminished by the presence of an abrupt onset. Therefore, the abrupt onset was unable to capture attention away from the target-color cue. Critically, older adults demonstrated the same resistance to capture by the abrupt onset. Experiment 2 extended these findings to irrelevant color singleton cues. Thus, we argue that the ability to attend to relevant stimuli and resist capture by salient-but-irrelevant stimuli is preserved with advancing age. (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

Stimulus-driven attentional capture by subliminal onset cues.

PubMed

Schoeberl, Tobias; Fuchs, Isabella; Theeuwes, Jan; Ansorge, Ulrich

2015-04-01

In two experiments, we tested whether subliminal abrupt onset cues capture attention in a stimulus-driven way. An onset cue was presented 16 ms prior to the stimulus display that consisted of clearly visible color targets. The onset cue was presented either at the same side as the target (the valid cue condition) or on the opposite side of the target (the invalid cue condition). Because the onset cue was presented 16 ms before other placeholders were presented, the cue was subliminal to the participant. To ensure that this subliminal cue captured attention in a stimulus-driven way, the cue's features did not match the top-down attentional control settings of the participants: (1) The color of the cue was always different than the color of the non-singleton targets ensuring that a top-down set for a specific color or for a singleton would not match the cue, and (2) colored targets and distractors had the same objective luminance (measured by the colorimeter) and subjective lightness (measured by flicker photometry), preventing a match between the top-down set for target and cue contrast. Even though a match between the cues and top-down settings was prevented, in both experiments, the cues captured attention, with faster response times in valid than invalid cue conditions (Experiments 1 and 2) and faster response times in valid than the neutral conditions (Experiment 2). The results support the conclusion that subliminal cues capture attention in a stimulus-driven way.

Setting semantics: conceptual set can determine the physical properties that capture attention.

PubMed

Goodhew, Stephanie C; Kendall, William; Ferber, Susanne; Pratt, Jay

2014-08-01

The ability of a stimulus to capture visuospatial attention depends on the interplay between its bottom-up saliency and its relationship to an observer's top-down control set, such that stimuli capture attention if they match the predefined properties that distinguish a searched-for target from distractors (Folk, Remington, & Johnston, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 18, 1030-1044 1992). Despite decades of research on this phenomenon, however, the vast majority has focused exclusively on matches based on low-level physical properties. Yet if contingent capture is indeed a "top-down" influence on attention, then semantic content should be accessible and able to determine which physical features capture attention. Here we tested this prediction by examining whether a semantically defined target could create a control set for particular features. To do this, we had participants search to identify a target that was differentiated from distractors by its meaning (e.g., the word "red" among color words all written in black). Before the target array, a cue was presented, and it was varied whether the cue appeared in the physical color implied by the target word. Across three experiments, we found that cues that embodied the meaning of the word produced greater cuing than cues that did not. This suggests that top-down control sets activate content that is semantically associated with the target-defining property, and this content in turn has the ability to exogenously orient attention.

Out with the new, in with the old: Exogenous orienting to locations with physically constant stimulation.

PubMed

Taylor, J Eric T; Hilchey, Matthew D; Pratt, Jay

2018-01-24

Dominant methods of investigating exogenous orienting presume that attention is captured most effectively at locations containing new events. This is evidenced by the ubiquitous use of transient stimuli as cues in the literature on exogenous orienting. In the present study, we showed that attention can be oriented exogenously toward a location containing a completely unchanging stimulus by modifying Posner's landmark exogenous spatial-cueing paradigm. Observers searched a six-element array of placeholder stimuli for an onset target. The target was preceded by a decrement in luminance to five of the six placeholders, such that one location remained physically constant. This "nonset" stimulus (so named to distinguish it from a traditional onsetting transient) acted as an exogenous cue, eliciting patterns of facilitation and inhibition at the nonset location and demonstrating that exogenous orienting is not always evident at the location of a visual transient. This method eliminates the decades-long confounding of orienting to a location with the processing of new events at that location, permitting alternative considerations of the nature of attentional selection.

Resource-sharing between internal maintenance and external selection modulates attentional capture by working memory content.

PubMed

Kiyonaga, Anastasia; Egner, Tobias

2014-01-01

It is unclear why and under what circumstances working memory (WM) and attention interact. Here, we apply the logic of the time-based resource-sharing (TBRS) model of WM (e.g., Barrouillet et al., 2004) to explore the mixed findings of a separate, but related, literature that studies the guidance of visual attention by WM contents. Specifically, we hypothesize that the linkage between WM representations and visual attention is governed by a time-shared cognitive resource that alternately refreshes internal (WM) and selects external (visual attention) information. If this were the case, WM content should guide visual attention (involuntarily), but only when there is time for it to be refreshed in an internal focus of attention. To provide an initial test for this hypothesis, we examined whether the amount of unoccupied time during a WM delay could impact the magnitude of attentional capture by WM contents. Participants were presented with a series of visual search trials while they maintained a WM cue for a delayed-recognition test. WM cues could coincide with the search target, a distracter, or neither. We varied both the number of searches to be performed, and the amount of available time to perform them. Slowing of visual search by a WM matching distracter-and facilitation by a matching target-were curtailed when the delay was filled with fast-paced (refreshing-preventing) search trials, as was subsequent memory probe accuracy. WM content may, therefore, only capture visual attention when it can be refreshed, suggesting that internal (WM) and external attention demands reciprocally impact one another because they share a limited resource. The TBRS rationale can thus be applied in a novel context to explain why WM contents capture attention, and under what conditions that effect should be observed.

Resource-sharing between internal maintenance and external selection modulates attentional capture by working memory content

PubMed Central

Kiyonaga, Anastasia; Egner, Tobias

2014-01-01

It is unclear why and under what circumstances working memory (WM) and attention interact. Here, we apply the logic of the time-based resource-sharing (TBRS) model of WM (e.g., Barrouillet et al., 2004) to explore the mixed findings of a separate, but related, literature that studies the guidance of visual attention by WM contents. Specifically, we hypothesize that the linkage between WM representations and visual attention is governed by a time-shared cognitive resource that alternately refreshes internal (WM) and selects external (visual attention) information. If this were the case, WM content should guide visual attention (involuntarily), but only when there is time for it to be refreshed in an internal focus of attention. To provide an initial test for this hypothesis, we examined whether the amount of unoccupied time during a WM delay could impact the magnitude of attentional capture by WM contents. Participants were presented with a series of visual search trials while they maintained a WM cue for a delayed-recognition test. WM cues could coincide with the search target, a distracter, or neither. We varied both the number of searches to be performed, and the amount of available time to perform them. Slowing of visual search by a WM matching distracter—and facilitation by a matching target—were curtailed when the delay was filled with fast-paced (refreshing-preventing) search trials, as was subsequent memory probe accuracy. WM content may, therefore, only capture visual attention when it can be refreshed, suggesting that internal (WM) and external attention demands reciprocally impact one another because they share a limited resource. The TBRS rationale can thus be applied in a novel context to explain why WM contents capture attention, and under what conditions that effect should be observed. PMID:25221499

Pre- and postprandial variation in implicit attention to food images reflects appetite and sensory-specific satiety.

PubMed

Davidson, Graeme R; Giesbrecht, Timo; Thomas, Anna M; Kirkham, Tim C

2018-06-01

Implicit attentional processes are biased toward food-related stimuli, with the extent of that bias reflecting relative motivation to eat. These interactions have typically been investigated by comparisons between fasted and sated individuals. In this study, temporal changes in implicit attention to food were assessed in relation to natural, spontaneous changes in appetite occurring before and after an anticipated midday meal. Non-fasted adults performed an emotional blink of attention (EBA) task at intervals, before and after consuming preferred, pre-selected sandwiches to satiety. Participants were required to detect targets within a rapid visual stream, presented after task-irrelevant food (preferred or non-preferred sandwiches, or desserts) or non-food distractor images. All categories of food distractor preferentially captured attention even when appetite levels were low, but became more distracting as appetite increased preprandially, reducing task accuracy maximally as hunger peaked before lunch. Postprandially, attentional capture was markedly reduced for images of the specific sandwich type consumed and, to a lesser extent, for images of other sandwich types that had not been eaten. Attentional capture by images of desserts was unaffected by satiation. These findings support an important role of selective visual attention in the guidance of motivated behaviour. Naturalistic, meal-related changes in appetite are accompanied by changes in implicit attention to visual food stimuli that are easily detected using the EBA paradigm. Preprandial enhancement of attention capture by food cues likely reflects increases in the incentive motivational value of all food stimuli, perhaps providing an implicit index of wanting. Postprandial EBA responses confirm that satiation on a particular food results in relative inattention to that food, supporting an important attentional component in the operation of sensory-specific satiety. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

The Role of Inhibition in Avoiding Distraction by Salient Stimuli.

PubMed

Gaspelin, Nicholas; Luck, Steven J

2018-01-01

Researchers have long debated whether salient stimuli can involuntarily 'capture' visual attention. We review here evidence for a recently discovered inhibitory mechanism that may help to resolve this debate. This evidence suggests that salient stimuli naturally attempt to capture attention, but capture can be avoided if the salient stimulus is suppressed before it captures attention. Importantly, the suppression process can be more or less effective as a result of changing task demands or lapses in cognitive control. Converging evidence for the existence of this suppression mechanism comes from multiple sources, including psychophysics, eye-tracking, and event-related potentials (ERPs). We conclude that the evidence for suppression is strong, but future research will need to explore the nature and limits of this mechanism. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Attentional bias to threat in the general population is contingent on target competition, not on attentional control settings.

PubMed

Wirth, Benedikt Emanuel; Wentura, Dirk

2018-04-01

Dot-probe studies usually find an attentional bias towards threatening stimuli only in anxious participants. Here, we investigated under what conditions such a bias occurs in unselected samples. According to contingent-capture theory, an irrelevant cue only captures attention if it matches an attentional control setting. Therefore, we first tested the hypothesis that an attentional control setting tuned to threat must be activated in (non-anxious) individuals. In Experiment 1, we used a dot-probe task with a manipulation of attentional control settings ('threat' - set vs. control set). Surprisingly, we found an (anxiety-independent) attentional bias to angry faces that was not moderated by attentional control settings. Since we presented two stimuli (i.e., a target and a distractor) on the target screen in Experiment 1 (a necessity to realise the test of contingent capture), but most dot-probe studies only employ a single target, we conducted Experiment 2 to test the hypothesis that attentional bias in the general population is contingent on target competition. Participants performed a dot-probe task, involving presentation of a stand-alone target or a target competing with a distractor. We found an (anxiety-independent) attentional bias towards angry faces in the latter but not the former condition. This suggests that attentional bias towards angry faces in unselected samples is not contingent on attentional control settings but on target competition.

Does apparent size capture attention in visual search? Evidence from the Muller-Lyer illusion.

PubMed

Proulx, Michael J; Green, Monique

2011-11-23

Is perceived size a crucial factor for the bottom-up guidance of attention? Here, a visual search experiment was used to examine whether an irrelevantly longer object can capture attention when participants were to detect a vertical target item. The longer object was created by an apparent size manipulation, the Müller-Lyer illusion; however, all objects contained the same number of pixels. The vertical target was detected more efficiently when it was also perceived as the longer item that was defined by apparent size. Further analysis revealed that the longer Müller-Lyer object received a greater degree of attentional priority than published results for other features such as retinal size, luminance contrast, and the abrupt onset of a new object. The present experiment has demonstrated for the first time that apparent size can capture attention and, thus, provide bottom-up guidance on the basis of perceived salience.

Attentional capture decreases when distractors remain visible during rapid serial visual presentations.

PubMed

Inukai, Tomoe; Kumada, Takatsune; Kawahara, Jun-ichiro

2010-05-01

The identification of a central visual target is impaired by the onset of a peripheral distractor. This impairment is said to occur because attentional focus is diverted to the peripheral distractor. We examined whether distractor offset would enhance or reduce attentional capture by manipulating the duration of the distractor. Observers identified a color singleton among a rapid stream of homogeneous nontargets. Peripheral distractors disappeared 43 or 172 msec after onset (the short- and long-duration conditions, respectively). Identification accuracy was greater in the long-duration condition than in the short-duration condition. The same pattern of results was obtained when participants identified a target of a designated color among heterogeneous nontargets when the color of the distractor was the same as that of the target. These findings suggest that attentional capture consists of stimulus onset and offset, both of which are susceptible to top-down attentional set.

Do the contents of working memory capture attention? Yes, but cognitive control matters.

PubMed

Han, Suk Won; Kim, Min-Shik

2009-10-01

There has been a controversy on whether working memory can guide attentional selection. Some researchers have reported that the contents of working memory guide attention automatically in visual search (D. Soto, D. Heinke, G. W. Humphreys, & M. J. Blanco, 2005). On the other hand, G.F. Woodman and S. J. Luck (2007) reported that they could not find any evidence of attentional capture by working memory. In the present study, we tried to find an integrative explanation for the different sets of results. We report evidence for attentional capture by working memory, but this effect was eliminated when search was perceptually demanding or the onset of the search was delayed long enough for cognitive control of search to be implemented under particular conditions. We suggest that perceptual difficulty and the time course of cognitive control as important factors that determine when information in working memory influences attention. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Automatic guidance of attention during real-world visual search

PubMed Central

Seidl-Rathkopf, Katharina N.; Turk-Browne, Nicholas B.; Kastner, Sabine

2015-01-01

Looking for objects in cluttered natural environments is a frequent task in everyday life. This process can be difficult, as the features, locations, and times of appearance of relevant objects are often not known in advance. A mechanism by which attention is automatically biased toward information that is potentially relevant may thus be helpful. Here we tested for such a mechanism across five experiments by engaging participants in real-world visual search and then assessing attentional capture for information that was related to the search set but was otherwise irrelevant. Isolated objects captured attention while preparing to search for objects from the same category embedded in a scene, as revealed by lower detection performance (Experiment 1A). This capture effect was driven by a central processing bottleneck rather than the withdrawal of spatial attention (Experiment 1B), occurred automatically even in a secondary task (Experiment 2A), and reflected enhancement of matching information rather than suppression of non-matching information (Experiment 2B). Finally, attentional capture extended to objects that were semantically associated with the target category (Experiment 3). We conclude that attention is efficiently drawn towards a wide range of information that may be relevant for an upcoming real-world visual search. This mechanism may be adaptive, allowing us to find information useful for our behavioral goals in the face of uncertainty. PMID:25898897

Neural mechanisms mediating contingent capture of attention by affective stimuli

PubMed Central

Reeck, Crystal; LaBar, Kevin S.; Egner, Tobias

2013-01-01

Attention is attracted exogenously by physically salient stimuli, but this effect can be dampened by endogenous attention settings, a phenomenon called “contingent capture”. Emotionally salient stimuli are also thought to exert a strong exogenous influence on attention, especially in anxious individuals, but whether and how top-down attention can ameliorate bottom-up capture by affective stimuli is currently unknown. Here, we paired a novel spatial cueing task with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in order to investigate contingent capture as a function of the affective salience of bottom-up cues (face stimuli) and individual differences in trait anxiety. In the absence of top-down cues, exogenous stimuli validly cueing targets facilitated attention in low anxious participants, regardless of affective salience. However, while high anxious participants exhibited similar facilitation following neutral exogenous cues, this facilitation was completely absent following affectively negative exogenous cues. Critically, these effects were contingent on endogenous attentional settings, such that explicit top-down cues presented prior to the appearance of exogenous stimuli removed anxious individuals’ sensitivity to affectively salient stimuli. FMRI analyses revealed a network of brain regions underlying this variability in affective contingent capture across individuals, including the fusiform face area (FFA), posterior ventrolateral frontal cortex, and supplementary motor area. Importantly, activation in the posterior ventrolateral frontal cortex and the supplementary motor area fully mediated the effects observed in FFA, demonstrating a critical role for these frontal regions in mediating attentional orienting and interference resolution processes when engaged by affectively salient stimuli. PMID:22360642

The same-location cost is unrelated to attentional settings: an object-updating account.

PubMed

Carmel, Tomer; Lamy, Dominique

2014-08-01

What mechanisms allow us to ignore salient yet irrelevant visual information has been a matter of intense debate. According to the contingent-capture hypothesis, such information is filtered out, whereas according to the salience-based account, it captures attention automatically. Several recent studies have reported a same-location cost that appears to fit neither of these accounts. These showed that responses may actually be slower when the target appears at the location just occupied by an irrelevant singleton distractor. Here, we investigated the mechanisms underlying this same-location cost. Our findings show that the same-location cost is unrelated to automatic attentional capture or strategic setting of attentional priorities, and therefore invalidate the feature-based inhibition and fast attentional disengagement accounts of this effect. In addition, we show that the cost is wiped out when the cue and target are not perceived as parts of the same object. We interpret these findings as indicating that the same-location cost has been previously misinterpreted by both bottom-up and top-down theories of attentional capture. We propose that it is better understood as a consequence of object updating, namely, as the cost of updating the information stored about an object when this object changes across time.

Memory-Based Attention Capture when Multiple Items Are Maintained in Visual Working Memory

PubMed Central

Hollingworth, Andrew; Beck, Valerie M.

2016-01-01

Efficient visual search requires that attention is guided strategically to relevant objects, and most theories of visual search implement this function by means of a target template maintained in visual working memory (VWM). However, there is currently debate over the architecture of VWM-based attentional guidance. We contrasted a single-item-template hypothesis with a multiple-item-template hypothesis, which differ in their claims about structural limits on the interaction between VWM representations and perceptual selection. Recent evidence from van Moorselaar, Theeuwes, and Olivers (2014) indicated that memory-based capture during search—an index of VWM guidance—is not observed when memory set size is increased beyond a single item, suggesting that multiple items in VWM do not guide attention. In the present study, we maximized the overlap between multiple colors held in VWM and the colors of distractors in a search array. Reliable capture was observed when two colors were held in VWM and both colors were present as distractors, using both the original van Moorselaar et al. singleton-shape search task and a search task that required focal attention to array elements (gap location in outline square stimuli). In the latter task, memory-based capture was consistent with the simultaneous guidance of attention by multiple VWM representations. PMID:27123681

Essential considerations in developing attention control groups in behavioral research.

PubMed

Aycock, Dawn M; Hayat, Matthew J; Helvig, Ashley; Dunbar, Sandra B; Clark, Patricia C

2018-06-01

Attention control groups strengthen randomized controlled trials of behavioral interventions, but researchers need to give careful consideration to the attention control activities. A comparative effectiveness research framework provides an ideal opportunity for an attention control group as a supplement to standard care, so participants potentially receive benefit regardless of group assignment. The anticipated benefit of the control condition must be independent of the study outcome. Resources needed for attention control activities need to be carefully considered and ethical considerations carefully weighed. In this paper we address nine considerations for the design and implementation of attention control groups: (1) ensure attention control activities are not associated with the outcome; (2) avoid contamination of the intervention or control group; (3) design comparable control and intervention activities; (4) ensure researcher training to adequately administer both treatment arms; (5) design control activities to be interesting and acceptable to participants; (6) evaluate attention control activities; (7) consider additional resources needed to implement attention control activities; (8) quantifying the effects of attention control and intervention groups; and (9) ethical considerations with attention control groups. Examples from the literature and ongoing research are presented. Careful planning for the attention control group is as important as for the intervention group. Researchers can use the considerations presented here to assist in planning for the best attention control group for their study. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Scopolamine Reduces Electrophysiological Indices of Distractor Suppression: Evidence from a Contingent Capture Task

PubMed Central

Laube, Inga; Matthews, Natasha; Dean, Angela J.; O’Connell, Redmond G.; Mattingley, Jason B.; Bellgrove, Mark A.

2017-01-01

Limited resources for the in-depth processing of external stimuli make it necessary to select only relevant information from our surroundings and to ignore irrelevant stimuli. Attentional mechanisms facilitate this selection via top-down modulation of stimulus representations in the brain. Previous research has indicated that acetylcholine (ACh) modulates this influence of attention on stimulus processing. However, the role of muscarinic receptors as well as the specific mechanism of cholinergic modulation remains unclear. Here we investigated the influence of ACh on feature-based, top-down control of stimulus processing via muscarinic receptors by using a contingent capture paradigm which specifically tests attentional shifts toward uninformative cue stimuli which display one of the target defining features In a double-blind, placebo controlled study we measured the impact of the muscarinic receptor antagonist scopolamine on behavioral and electrophysiological measures of contingent attentional capture. The results demonstrated all the signs of functional contingent capture, i.e., attentional shifts toward cued locations reflected in increased amplitudes of N1 and N2Pc components, under placebo conditions. However, scopolamine did not affect behavioral or electrophysiological measures of contingent capture. Instead, scopolamine reduced the amplitude of the distractor-evoked Pd component which has recently been associated with active suppression of irrelevant distractor information. The findings suggest a general cholinergic modulation of top-down control during distractor processing. PMID:29270112

Bottom-up attention capture with distractor and target singletons defined in the same (color) dimension is not a matter of feature uncertainty.

PubMed

Weichselbaum, Hanna; Ansorge, Ulrich

2018-05-18

In visual search, attention capture by an irrelevant color-singleton distractor in another feature dimension than the target is dependent on whether or not the distractor changes its feature: Capture is present if the irrelevant color distractor can take on different features across trials, but absent if the distractor takes on only one feature throughout all trials. This influence could be due to down-weighting of the entire color map. Here we tested whether a similar effect could also be brought about by down-weighting of specific color channels within the same maps. We investigated whether a similar dependence of capture on color certainty might hold true if the distractor were defined in the same (color) dimension as the target. At odds with this possibility, in the first and third blocks-in which feature uncertainty was absent-an irrelevant distractor of a certain color captured attention. In addition, in a second block, varying the distractor color created feature uncertainty, but this did not increase capture. Repeating the exact same procedure with the same participants after one week confirmed the stability of the results. The present study showed that a color distractor presented in the same (color) dimension as the target captures attention independent of feature uncertainty. Thus, the down-weighting of single irrelevant color channels within the same feature map used for target search is not a matter of feature uncertainty.

Typical visual search performance and atypical gaze behaviors in response to faces in Williams syndrome.

PubMed

Hirai, Masahiro; Muramatsu, Yukako; Mizuno, Seiji; Kurahashi, Naoko; Kurahashi, Hirokazu; Nakamura, Miho

2016-01-01

Evidence indicates that individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) exhibit atypical attentional characteristics when viewing faces. However, the dynamics of visual attention captured by faces remain unclear, especially when explicit attentional forces are present. To clarify this, we introduced a visual search paradigm and assessed how the relative strength of visual attention captured by a face and explicit attentional control changes as search progresses. Participants (WS and controls) searched for a target (butterfly) within an array of distractors, which sometimes contained an upright face. We analyzed reaction time and location of the first fixation-which reflect the attentional profile at the initial stage-and fixation durations. These features represent aspects of attention at later stages of visual search. The strength of visual attention captured by faces and explicit attentional control (toward the butterfly) was characterized by the frequency of first fixations on a face or butterfly and on the duration of face or butterfly fixations. Although reaction time was longer in all groups when faces were present, and visual attention was not dominated by faces in any group during the initial stages of the search, when faces were present, attention to faces dominated in the WS group during the later search stages. Furthermore, for the WS group, reaction time correlated with eye-movement measures at different stages of searching such that longer reaction times were associated with longer face-fixations, specifically at the initial stage of searching. Moreover, longer reaction times were associated with longer face-fixations at the later stages of searching, while shorter reaction times were associated with longer butterfly fixations. The relative strength of attention captured by faces in people with WS is not observed at the initial stage of searching but becomes dominant as the search progresses. Furthermore, although behavioral responses are associated with some aspects of eye movements, they are not as sensitive as eye-movement measurements themselves at detecting atypical attentional characteristics in people with WS.

Auditory Attentional Capture: Effects of Singleton Distractor Sounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dalton, Polly; Lavie, Nilli

2004-01-01

The phenomenon of attentional capture by a unique yet irrelevant singleton distractor has typically been studied in visual search. In this article, the authors examine whether a similar phenomenon occurs in the auditory domain. Participants searched sequences of sounds for targets defined by frequency, intensity, or duration. The presence of a…

Infographics: An Innovative Tool to Capture Consumers' Attention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Niebaum, Kelly; Cunningham-Sabo, Leslie; Carroll, Jan; Bellows, Laura

2015-01-01

Using infographics as educational tools has emerged as a strategy to reach consumers in today's information-saturated environment. Through the use of engaging and informative graphics, educators can deliver meaningful messages tailored to targeted audiences. Varying types of effectively designed infographics can be used to capture the attention of…

Moving to Capture Children’s Attention: Developing a Methodology for Measuring Visuomotor Attention

PubMed Central

Coats, Rachel O.; Mushtaq, Faisal; Williams, Justin H. G.; Aucott, Lorna S.; Mon-Williams, Mark

2016-01-01

Attention underpins many activities integral to a child’s development. However, methodological limitations currently make large-scale assessment of children’s attentional skill impractical, costly and lacking in ecological validity. Consequently we developed a measure of ‘Visual Motor Attention’ (VMA)—a construct defined as the ability to sustain and adapt visuomotor behaviour in response to task-relevant visual information. In a series of experiments, we evaluated the capability of our method to measure attentional processes and their contributions in guiding visuomotor behaviour. Experiment 1 established the method’s core features (ability to track stimuli moving on a tablet-computer screen with a hand-held stylus) and demonstrated its sensitivity to principled manipulations in adults’ attentional load. Experiment 2 standardised a format suitable for use with children and showed construct validity by capturing developmental changes in executive attention processes. Experiment 3 tested the hypothesis that children with and without coordination difficulties would show qualitatively different response patterns, finding an interaction between the cognitive and motor factors underpinning responses. Experiment 4 identified associations between VMA performance and existing standardised attention assessments and thereby confirmed convergent validity. These results establish a novel approach to measuring childhood attention that can produce meaningful functional assessments that capture how attention operates in an ecologically valid context (i.e. attention's specific contribution to visuomanual action). PMID:27434198

Colorimetry and SERS dual-mode detection of telomerase activity: combining rapid screening with high sensitivity.

PubMed

Zong, Shenfei; Wang, Zhuyuan; Chen, Hui; Hu, Guohua; Liu, Min; Chen, Peng; Cui, Yiping

2014-01-01

As an important biomarker and therapeutic target, telomerase has attracted considerable attention concerning its detection and monitoring. Here, we present a colorimetry and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) dual-mode telomerase activity detection method, which has several distinctive advantages. First, colorimetric functionality allows rapid preliminary discrimination of telomerase activity by the naked eye. Second, the employment of SERS technique results in greatly improved detection sensitivity. Third, the combination of colorimetry and SERS into one detection system can ensure highly efficacious and sensitive screening of numerous samples. Besides, the avoidance of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) procedures further guarantees fine reliability and simplicity. Generally, the presented method is realized by an "elongate and capture" procedure. To be specific, gold nanoparticles modified with Raman molecules and telomeric repeat complementary oligonucleotide are employed as the colorimetric-SERS bifunctional reporting nanotag, while magnetic nanoparticles functionalized with telomerase substrate oligonucleotide are used as the capturing substrate. Telomerase can synthesize and elongate telomeric repeats onto the capturing substrate. The elongated telomeric repeats subsequently facilitate capturing of the reporting nanotag via hybridization between telomeric repeat and its complementary strand. The captured nanotags can cause a significant difference in the color and SERS intensity of the magnetically separated sediments. Thus both the color and SERS can be used as indicators of the telomerase activity. With fast screening ability and outstanding sensitivity, we anticipate that this method would greatly promote practical application of telomerase-based early-stage cancer diagnosis.

Enhanced science-stakeholder communication to improve ecosystem model performances for climate change impact assessments.

PubMed

Jönsson, Anna Maria; Anderbrant, Olle; Holmér, Jennie; Johansson, Jacob; Schurgers, Guy; Svensson, Glenn P; Smith, Henrik G

2015-04-01

In recent years, climate impact assessments of relevance to the agricultural and forestry sectors have received considerable attention. Current ecosystem models commonly capture the effect of a warmer climate on biomass production, but they rarely sufficiently capture potential losses caused by pests, pathogens and extreme weather events. In addition, alternative management regimes may not be integrated in the models. A way to improve the quality of climate impact assessments is to increase the science-stakeholder collaboration, and in a two-way dialog link empirical experience and impact modelling with policy and strategies for sustainable management. In this paper we give a brief overview of different ecosystem modelling methods, discuss how to include ecological and management aspects, and highlight the importance of science-stakeholder communication. By this, we hope to stimulate a discussion among the science-stakeholder communities on how to quantify the potential for climate change adaptation by improving the realism in the models.

Components of working memory and visual selective attention.

PubMed

Burnham, Bryan R; Sabia, Matthew; Langan, Catherine

2014-02-01

Load theory (Lavie, N., Hirst, A., De Fockert, J. W., & Viding, E. [2004]. Load theory of selective attention and cognitive control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 339-354.) proposes that control of attention depends on the amount and type of load that is imposed by current processing. Specifically, perceptual load should lead to efficient distractor rejection, whereas working memory load (dual-task coordination) should hinder distractor rejection. Studies support load theory's prediction that working memory load will lead to larger distractor effects; however, these studies used secondary tasks that required only verbal working memory and the central executive. The present study examined which other working memory components (visual, spatial, and phonological) influence visual selective attention. Subjects completed an attentional capture task alone (single-task) or while engaged in a working memory task (dual-task). Results showed that along with the central executive, visual and spatial working memory influenced selective attention, but phonological working memory did not. Specifically, attentional capture was larger when visual or spatial working memory was loaded, but phonological working memory load did not affect attentional capture. The results are consistent with load theory and suggest specific components of working memory influence visual selective attention. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Head-Up Displays and Attention Capture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prinzel, Lawrence J., III; Risser, Matthew

2004-01-01

The primary role of head-up displays (HUDs) is to provide primary flight, navigation, and guidance information to the pilot in a forward field-of-view on a head-up transparent screen. Therefore, this theoretically allows for optimal control of an aircraft through the simultaneous scanning of both instrument data and the out-the-window scene. However, despite significant aviation safety benefits afforded by HUDs, a number of accidents have shown that their use does not come without costs. The human factors community has identified significant issues related to the pilot distribution of near and far domain attentional resources because of the compellingness of symbology elements on the HUD; a concern termed, attention or cognitive capture. The paper describes the phenomena of attention capture and presents a selected survey of the literature on the etiology and potential prescriptions.

Sensory mediation of stimulus-driven attentional capture in multiple-cue displays.

PubMed

Wright, Richard D; Richard, Christian M

2003-08-01

Three location-cuing experiments were conducted in order to examine the stimulus-driven control of attentional capture in multiple-cue displays. These displays consisted of one to four simultaneously presented direct location cues. The results indicated that direct location cuing can produce cue effects that are mediated, in part, by nonattentional processing that occurs simultaneously at multiple locations. When single cues were presented in isolation, however, the resulting cue effect appeared to be due to a combination of sensory processing and attentional capture by the cue. This suggests that the faster responses produced by direct cues may be associated with two different components: an attention-related component that can be modulated by goal-driven factors and a nonattentional component that occurs in parallel at multiple direct-cue locations and is minimally affected by goal-driven factors.

Reward-associated features capture attention in the absence of awareness: Evidence from object-substitution masking.

PubMed

Harris, Joseph A; Donohue, Sarah E; Schoenfeld, Mircea A; Hopf, Jens-Max; Heinze, Hans-Jochen; Woldorff, Marty G

2016-08-15

Reward-associated visual features have been shown to capture visual attention, evidenced in faster and more accurate behavioral performance, as well as in neural responses reflecting lateralized shifts of visual attention to those features. Specifically, the contralateral N2pc event-related-potential (ERP) component that reflects attentional shifting exhibits increased amplitude in response to task-relevant targets containing a reward-associated feature. In the present study, we examined the automaticity of such reward-association effects using object-substitution masking (OSM) in conjunction with MEG measures of visual attentional shifts. In OSM, a visual-search array is presented, with the target item to be detected indicated by a surrounding mask (here, four surrounding squares). Delaying the offset of the target-surrounding four-dot mask relative to the offset of the rest of the target/distracter array disrupts the viewer's awareness of the target (masked condition), whereas simultaneous offsets do not (unmasked condition). Here we manipulated whether the color of the OSM target was or was not of a previously reward-associated color. By tracking reward-associated enhancements of behavior and the N2pc in response to masked targets containing a previously rewarded or unrewarded feature, the automaticity of attentional capture by reward could be probed. We found an enhanced N2pc response to targets containing a previously reward-associated color feature. Moreover, this enhancement of the N2pc by reward did not differ between masking conditions, nor did it differ as a function of the apparent visibility of the target within the masked condition. Overall, these results underscore the automaticity of attentional capture by reward-associated features, and demonstrate the ability of feature-based reward associations to shape attentional capture and allocation outside of perceptual awareness. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Subliminally presented and stored objects capture spatial attention.

PubMed

Astle, Duncan E; Nobre, Anna C; Scerif, Gaia

2010-03-10

When objects disappear from view, we can still bring them to mind, at least for brief periods of time, because we can represent those objects in visual short-term memory (VSTM) (Sperling, 1960; Cowan, 2001). A defining characteristic of this representation is that it is topographic, that is, it preserves a spatial organization based on the original visual percept (Vogel and Machizawa, 2004; Astle et al., 2009; Kuo et al., 2009). Recent research has also shown that features or locations of visual items that match those being maintained in conscious VSTM automatically capture our attention (Awh and Jonides, 2001; Olivers et al., 2006; Soto et al., 2008). But do objects leave some trace that can guide spatial attention, even without participants intentionally remembering them? Furthermore, could subliminally presented objects leave a topographically arranged representation that can capture attention? We presented objects either supraliminally or subliminally and then 1 s later re-presented one of those objects in a new location, as a "probe" shape. As participants made an arbitrary perceptual judgment on the probe shape, their covert spatial attention was drawn to the original location of that shape, regardless of whether its initial presentation had been supraliminal or subliminal. We demonstrate this with neural and behavioral measures of memory-driven attentional capture. These findings reveal the existence of a topographically arranged store of "visual" objects, the content of which is beyond our explicit awareness but which nonetheless guides spatial attention.

Irrelevant singletons in visual search do not capture attention but can produce nonspatial filtering costs.

PubMed

Wykowska, Agnieszka; Schubö, Anna

2011-03-01

It is not clear how salient distractors affect visual processing. The debate concerning the issue of whether irrelevant salient items capture spatial attention [e.g., Theeuwes, J., Atchley, P., & Kramer, A. F. On the time course of top-down and bottom-up control of visual attention. In S. Monsell & J. Driver (Eds.), Attention and performance XVIII: Control of cognitive performance (pp. 105-124). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000] or produce only nonspatial interference in the form of, for example, filtering costs [Folk, Ch. L., & Remington, R. Top-down modulation of preattentive processing: Testing the recovery account of contingent capture. Visual Cognition, 14, 445-465, 2006] has not yet been settled. The present ERP study examined deployment of attention in visual search displays that contained an additional irrelevant singleton. Display-locked N2pc showed that attention was allocated to the target and not to the irrelevant singleton. However, the onset of the N2pc to the target was delayed when the irrelevant singleton was presented in the opposite hemifield relative to the same hemifield. Thus, although attention was successfully focused on the target, the irrelevant singleton produced some interference resulting in a delayed allocation of attention to the target. A subsequent probe discrimination task allowed for locking ERPs to probe onsets and investigating the dynamics of sensory gain control for probes appearing at relevant (target) or irrelevant (singleton distractor) positions. Probe-locked P1 showed sensory gain for probes positioned at the target location but no such effect for irrelevant singletons in the additional singleton condition. Taken together, the present data support the claim that irrelevant singletons do not capture attention. If they produce any interference, it is rather due to nonspatial filtering costs.

The interaction of feature and space based orienting within the attention set.

PubMed

Lim, Ahnate; Sinnett, Scott

2014-01-01

The processing of sensory information relies on interacting mechanisms of sustained attention and attentional capture, both of which operate in space and on object features. While evidence indicates that exogenous attentional capture, a mechanism previously understood to be automatic, can be eliminated while concurrently performing a demanding task, we reframe this phenomenon within the theoretical framework of the "attention set" (Most et al., 2005). Consequently, the specific prediction that cuing effects should reappear when feature dimensions of the cue overlap with those in the attention set (i.e., elements of the demanding task) was empirically tested and confirmed using a dual-task paradigm involving both sustained attention and attentional capture, adapted from Santangelo et al. (2007). Participants were required to either detect a centrally presented target presented in a stream of distractors (the primary task), or respond to a spatially cued target (the secondary task). Importantly, the spatial cue could either share features with the target in the centrally presented primary task, or not share any features. Overall, the findings supported the attention set hypothesis showing that a spatial cuing effect was only observed when the peripheral cue shared a feature with objects that were already in the attention set (i.e., the primary task). However, this finding was accompanied by differential attentional orienting dependent on the different types of objects within the attention set, with feature-based orienting occurring for target-related objects, and additional spatial-based orienting for distractor-related objects.

The interaction of feature and space based orienting within the attention set

PubMed Central

Lim, Ahnate; Sinnett, Scott

2014-01-01

The processing of sensory information relies on interacting mechanisms of sustained attention and attentional capture, both of which operate in space and on object features. While evidence indicates that exogenous attentional capture, a mechanism previously understood to be automatic, can be eliminated while concurrently performing a demanding task, we reframe this phenomenon within the theoretical framework of the “attention set” (Most et al., 2005). Consequently, the specific prediction that cuing effects should reappear when feature dimensions of the cue overlap with those in the attention set (i.e., elements of the demanding task) was empirically tested and confirmed using a dual-task paradigm involving both sustained attention and attentional capture, adapted from Santangelo et al. (2007). Participants were required to either detect a centrally presented target presented in a stream of distractors (the primary task), or respond to a spatially cued target (the secondary task). Importantly, the spatial cue could either share features with the target in the centrally presented primary task, or not share any features. Overall, the findings supported the attention set hypothesis showing that a spatial cuing effect was only observed when the peripheral cue shared a feature with objects that were already in the attention set (i.e., the primary task). However, this finding was accompanied by differential attentional orienting dependent on the different types of objects within the attention set, with feature-based orienting occurring for target-related objects, and additional spatial-based orienting for distractor-related objects. PMID:24523682

Memory-based attention capture when multiple items are maintained in visual working memory.

PubMed

Hollingworth, Andrew; Beck, Valerie M

2016-07-01

Efficient visual search requires that attention is guided strategically to relevant objects, and most theories of visual search implement this function by means of a target template maintained in visual working memory (VWM). However, there is currently debate over the architecture of VWM-based attentional guidance. We contrasted a single-item-template hypothesis with a multiple-item-template hypothesis, which differ in their claims about structural limits on the interaction between VWM representations and perceptual selection. Recent evidence from van Moorselaar, Theeuwes, and Olivers (2014) indicated that memory-based capture during search, an index of VWM guidance, is not observed when memory set size is increased beyond a single item, suggesting that multiple items in VWM do not guide attention. In the present study, we maximized the overlap between multiple colors held in VWM and the colors of distractors in a search array. Reliable capture was observed when 2 colors were held in VWM and both colors were present as distractors, using both the original van Moorselaar et al. singleton-shape search task and a search task that required focal attention to array elements (gap location in outline square stimuli). In the latter task, memory-based capture was consistent with the simultaneous guidance of attention by multiple VWM representations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Multisensory Cues Capture Spatial Attention Regardless of Perceptual Load

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santangelo, Valerio; Spence, Charles

2007-01-01

We compared the ability of auditory, visual, and audiovisual (bimodal) exogenous cues to capture visuo-spatial attention under conditions of no load versus high perceptual load. Participants had to discriminate the elevation (up vs. down) of visual targets preceded by either unimodal or bimodal cues under conditions of high perceptual load (in…

Irrelevant Singletons in Pop-Out Search: Attentional Capture or Filtering Costs?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Becker, Stefanie I.

2007-01-01

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether costs invoked by the presence of an irrelevant singleton distractor in a visual search task are due to attentional capture by the irrelevant singleton or spatially unrelated filtering costs. Measures of spatial effects were based on distance effects, compatibility effects, and differences…

Brief Report: Faces Cause Less Distraction in Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riby, Deborah M.; Brown, Philippa H.; Jones, Nicola; Hanley, Mary

2012-01-01

Individuals with autism have difficulties interpreting face cues that contribute to deficits of social communication. When faces need to be processed for meaning they fail to capture and hold the attention of individuals with autism. In the current study we illustrate that faces fail to capture attention in a typical manner even when they are…

Effects of Psychological Attention on Pronoun Comprehension

PubMed Central

Arnold, Jennifer E.; Lao, Shin-Yi C.

2015-01-01

Pronoun comprehension is facilitated for referents that are focused in the discourse context. Discourse focus has been described as a function of attention, especially shared attention, but few studies have explicitly tested this idea. Two experiments used an exogenous capture cue paradigm to demonstrate that listeners’ visual attention at the onset of a story influences their preferences during pronoun resolution later in the story. In both experiments trial-initial attention modulated listeners’ transitory biases while considering referents for the pronoun, whether it was in response to the capture cue or not. These biases even had a small influence on listeners’ final interpretation of the pronoun. These results provide independently-motivated evidence that the listener’s attention influences the on-line processes of pronoun comprehension. Trial-initial attentional shifts were made on the basis of non-shared, private information, demonstrating that attentional effects on pronoun comprehension are not restricted to shared attention among interlocutors. PMID:26191533

When Does Feature Search Fail to Protect Against Attentional Capture?

PubMed Central

Graves, Tashina; Egeth, Howard E.

2016-01-01

When participants search for a shape (e.g., a circle) among a set of homogenous shapes (e.g., triangles) they are subject to distraction by color singletons that are more salient than the target. However, when participants search for a shape among heterogeneous shapes, the presence of a non-target color singleton does not slow responses to the target. Attempts have been made to explain these results from both bottom-up and top-down perspectives. What both accounts have in common is that they do not predict the occurrence of attentional capture on typical feature search displays. Here, we present a case where manipulating selection history, rather than the displays themselves, leads to attentional capture on feature search trials. The ability to map specific colors to the target and distractor appears to be what enables resistance to capture during feature search. PMID:27504073

Attention capture without awareness in a non-spatial selection task.

PubMed

Oriet, Chris; Pandey, Mamata; Kawahara, Jun-Ichiro

2017-02-01

Distractors presented prior to a critical target in a rapid sequence of visually-presented items induce a lag-dependent deficit in target identification, particularly when the distractor shares a task-relevant feature of the target. Presumably, such capture of central attention is important for bringing a target into awareness. The results of the present investigation suggest that greater capture of attention by a distractor is not accompanied by greater awareness of it. Moreover, awareness tends to be limited to superficial characteristics of the target such as colour. The findings are interpreted within the context of a model that assumes sudden increases in arousal trigger selection of information for consolidation in working memory. In this conceptualization, prolonged analysis of distractor items sharing task-relevant features leads to larger target identification deficits (i.e., greater capture) but no increase in awareness. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Attention capture by abrupt onsets: re-visiting the priority tag model.

PubMed

Sunny, Meera M; von Mühlenen, Adrian

2013-01-01

Abrupt onsets have been shown to strongly attract attention in a stimulus-driven, bottom-up manner. However, the precise mechanism that drives capture by onsets is still debated. According to the new object account, abrupt onsets capture attention because they signal the appearance of a new object. Yantis and Johnson (1990) used a visual search task and showed that up to four onsets can be automatically prioritized. However, in their study the number of onsets co-varied with the total number of items in the display, allowing for a possible confound between these two variables. In the present study, display size was fixed at eight items while the number of onsets was systematically varied between zero and eight. Experiment 1 showed a systematic increase in reactions times with increasing number of onsets. This increase was stronger when the target was an onset than when it was a no-onset item, a result that is best explained by a model according to which only one onset is automatically prioritized. Even when the onsets were marked in red (Experiment 2), nearly half of the participants continued to prioritize only one onset item. Only when onset and no-onset targets were blocked (Experiment 3), participants started to search selectively through the set of only the relevant target type. These results further support the finding that only one onset captures attention. Many bottom-up models of attention capture, like masking or saliency accounts, can efficiently explain this finding.

What we expect is not always what we get: evidence for both the direction-of-change and the specific-stimulus hypotheses of auditory attentional capture.

PubMed

Nöstl, Anatole; Marsh, John E; Sörqvist, Patrik

2014-01-01

Participants were requested to respond to a sequence of visual targets while listening to a well-known lullaby. One of the notes in the lullaby was occasionally exchanged with a pattern deviant. Experiment 1 found that deviants capture attention as a function of the pitch difference between the deviant and the replaced/expected tone. However, when the pitch difference between the expected tone and the deviant tone is held constant, a violation to the direction-of-pitch change across tones can also capture attention (Experiment 2). Moreover, in more complex auditory environments, wherein it is difficult to build a coherent neural model of the sound environment from which expectations are formed, deviations can capture attention but it appears to matter less whether this is a violation from a specific stimulus or a violation of the current direction-of-change (Experiment 3). The results support the expectation violation account of auditory distraction and suggest that there are at least two different expectations that can be violated: One appears to be bound to a specific stimulus and the other would seem to be bound to a more global cross-stimulus rule such as the direction-of-change based on a sequence of preceding sound events. Factors like base-rate probability of tones within the sound environment might become the driving mechanism of attentional capture--rather than violated expectations--in complex sound environments.

Purification of Proteins Fused to Maltose-Binding Protein.

PubMed

Lebendiker, Mario; Danieli, Tsafi

2017-01-01

Maltose-Binding Protein (MBP) is one of the most popular fusion partners being used for producing recombinant proteins in bacterial cells. MBP allows the use of a simple capture affinity step on Amylose-Agarose or Dextrin-Sepharose columns, resulting in a protein that is often 70-90 % pure in a single step. In addition to protein isolation applications, MBP provides a high degree of translation, and facilitates the proper folding and solubility of the target protein. This paper describes efficient procedures for isolating highly purified MBP target proteins. Special attention is given to considerations for downstream applications such as structural determination studies, protein activity assays, and assessing the chemical characteristics of the target protein.

Age Mediation of Frontoparietal Activation during Visual Feature Search

PubMed Central

Madden, David J.; Parks, Emily L.; Davis, Simon W.; Diaz, Michele T.; Potter, Guy G.; Chou, Ying-hui; Chen, Nan-kuei; Cabeza, Roberto

2014-01-01

Activation of frontal and parietal brain regions is associated with attentional control during visual search. We used fMRI to characterize age-related differences in frontoparietal activation in a highly efficient feature search task, detection of a shape singleton. On half of the trials, a salient distractor (a color singleton) was present in the display. The hypothesis was that frontoparietal activation mediated the relation between age and attentional capture by the salient distractor. Participants were healthy, community-dwelling individuals, 21 younger adults (19 – 29 years of age) and 21 older adults (60 – 87 years of age). Top-down attention, in the form of target predictability, was associated with an improvement in search performance that was comparable for younger and older adults. The increase in search reaction time (RT) associated with the salient distractor (attentional capture), standardized to correct for generalized age-related slowing, was greater for older adults than for younger adults. On trials with a color singleton distractor, search RT increased as a function of increasing activation in frontal regions, for both age groups combined, suggesting increased task difficulty. Mediational analyses disconfirmed the hypothesized model, in which frontal activation mediated the age-related increase in attentional capture, but supported an alternative model in which age was a mediator of the relation between frontal activation and capture. PMID:25102420

Gestalt Perceptual Organization of Visual Stimuli Captures Attention Automatically: Electrophysiological Evidence

PubMed Central

Marini, Francesco; Marzi, Carlo A.

2016-01-01

The visual system leverages organizational regularities of perceptual elements to create meaningful representations of the world. One clear example of such function, which has been formalized in the Gestalt psychology principles, is the perceptual grouping of simple visual elements (e.g., lines and arcs) into unitary objects (e.g., forms and shapes). The present study sought to characterize automatic attentional capture and related cognitive processing of Gestalt-like visual stimuli at the psychophysiological level by using event-related potentials (ERPs). We measured ERPs during a simple visual reaction time task with bilateral presentations of physically matched elements with or without a Gestalt organization. Results showed that Gestalt (vs. non-Gestalt) stimuli are characterized by a larger N2pc together with enhanced ERP amplitudes of non-lateralized components (N1, N2, P3) starting around 150 ms post-stimulus onset. Thus, we conclude that Gestalt stimuli capture attention automatically and entail characteristic psychophysiological signatures at both early and late processing stages. Highlights We studied the neural signatures of the automatic processes of visual attention elicited by Gestalt stimuli. We found that a reliable early correlate of attentional capture turned out to be the N2pc component. Perceptual and cognitive processing of Gestalt stimuli is associated with larger N1, N2, and P3 PMID:27630555

Attention capture by contour onsets and offsets: no special role for onsets.

PubMed

Watson, D G; Humphreys, G W

1995-07-01

In five experiments, we investigated the power of targets defined by the onset or offset of one of an object's parts (contour onsets and offsets) either to guide or to capture visual attention. In Experiment 1, search for a single contour onset target was compared with search for a single contour offset target against a static background of distractors; no difference was found between the efficiency with which each could be detected. In Experiment 2, onsets and offsets were compared for automatic attention capture, when both occurred simultaneously. Unlike in previous studies, the effects of overall luminance change, new-object creation, and number of onset and offset items were controlled. It was found that contour onset and offset items captured attention equally well. However, display size effects on both target types were also apparent. Such effects may have been due to competition for selection between multiple onset and offset stimuli. In Experiments 3 and 4, single onset and offset stimuli were presented simultaneously and pitted directly against one another among a background of static distractors. In Experiment 3, we examined "guided search," for a target that was formed either from an onset or from an offset among static items. In Experiment 4, the onsets and offsets were uncorrelated with the target location. Similar results occurred in both experiments: target onsets and offsets were detected more efficiently than static stimuli which needed serial search; there remained effects of display size on performance; but there was still no advantage for onsets. In Experiment 5, we examined automatic attention capture by single onset and offset stimuli presented individually among static distractors. Again, there was no advantage for onset over offset targets and a display size effect was also present. These results suggest that, both in isolation and in competition, onsets that do not form new objects neither guide nor gain automatic attention more efficiently than offsets. In addition, in contrast to previous studies in which onsets formed new objects, contour onsets and offsets did not reliably capture attention automatically.

Self-face Captures, Holds, and Biases Attention.

PubMed

Wójcik, Michał J; Nowicka, Maria M; Kotlewska, Ilona; Nowicka, Anna

2017-01-01

The implicit self-recognition process may take place already in the pre-attentive stages of perception. After a silent stimulus has captured attention, it is passed on to the attentive stage where it can affect decision making and responding. Numerous studies show that the presence of self-referential information affects almost every cognitive level. These effects may share a common and fundamental basis in an attentional mechanism, conceptualized as attentional bias: the exaggerated deployment of attentional resources to a salient stimulus. A gold standard in attentional bias research is the dot-probe paradigm. In this task, a prominent stimulus (cue) and a neutral stimulus are presented in different spatial locations, followed by the presentation of a target. In the current study we aimed at investigating whether the self-face captures, holds and biases attention when presented as a task-irrelevant stimulus. In two dot-probe experiments coupled with the event-related potential (ERP) technique we analyzed the following relevant ERPs components: N2pc and SPCN which reflect attentional shifts and the maintenance of attention, respectively. An inter-stimulus interval separating face-cues and probes (800 ms) was introduced only in the first experiment. In line with our predictions, in Experiment 1 the self-face elicited the N2pc and the SPCN component. In Experiment 2 in addition to N2pc, an attentional bias was observed. Our results indicate that unintentional self-face processing disables the top-down control setting to filter out distractors, thus leading to the engagement of attentional resources and visual short-term memory.

Stochastic dynamics and the predictability of big hits in online videos.

PubMed

Miotto, José M; Kantz, Holger; Altmann, Eduardo G

2017-03-01

The competition for the attention of users is a central element of the Internet. Crucial issues are the origin and predictability of big hits, the few items that capture a big portion of the total attention. We address these issues analyzing 10^{6} time series of videos' views from YouTube. We find that the average gain of views is linearly proportional to the number of views a video already has, in agreement with usual rich-get-richer mechanisms and Gibrat's law, but this fails to explain the prevalence of big hits. The reason is that the fluctuations around the average views are themselves heavy tailed. Based on these empirical observations, we propose a stochastic differential equation with Lévy noise as a model of the dynamics of videos. We show how this model is substantially better in estimating the probability of an ordinary item becoming a big hit, which is considerably underestimated in the traditional proportional-growth models.

Stochastic dynamics and the predictability of big hits in online videos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miotto, José M.; Kantz, Holger; Altmann, Eduardo G.

2017-03-01

The competition for the attention of users is a central element of the Internet. Crucial issues are the origin and predictability of big hits, the few items that capture a big portion of the total attention. We address these issues analyzing 106 time series of videos' views from YouTube. We find that the average gain of views is linearly proportional to the number of views a video already has, in agreement with usual rich-get-richer mechanisms and Gibrat's law, but this fails to explain the prevalence of big hits. The reason is that the fluctuations around the average views are themselves heavy tailed. Based on these empirical observations, we propose a stochastic differential equation with Lévy noise as a model of the dynamics of videos. We show how this model is substantially better in estimating the probability of an ordinary item becoming a big hit, which is considerably underestimated in the traditional proportional-growth models.

Attention Capture by Faces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Langton, Stephen R. H.; Law, Anna S.; Burton, A. Mike; Schweinberger, Stefan R.

2008-01-01

We report three experiments that investigate whether faces are capable of capturing attention when in competition with other non-face objects. In Experiment 1a participants took longer to decide that an array of objects contained a butterfly target when a face appeared as one of the distracting items than when the face did not appear in the array.…

Stimulus-Driven Attentional Capture by a Static Discontinuity between Perceptual Groups

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burnham, Bryan R.; Neely, James H.; Naginsky, Yelena; Thomas, Matthew

2010-01-01

After C. L. Folk, R. W. Remington, and J. C. Johnston (1992) proposed their contingent-orienting hypothesis, there has been an ongoing debate over whether purely stimulus-driven attentional capture can occur for visual events that are salient by virtue of a distinctive static property (as opposed to a dynamic property such as abrupt onset). The…

Shallow Processing and Attention Capture in Written and Spoken Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanford, Alison J. S.; Sanford, Anthony J.; Molle, Jo; Emmott, Catherine

2006-01-01

Processing of discourse seems to be far from uniform with much evidence indicating that it can be quite shallow. The question is then what modulates depth of processing? A range of discourse devices exist that we believe may lead to more detailed processing of language input (Attention Capturers), thus serving as modulators of processing enabling…

Selection history alters attentional filter settings persistently and beyond top-down control.

PubMed

Kadel, Hanna; Feldmann-Wüstefeld, Tobias; Schubö, Anna

2017-05-01

Visual selective attention is known to be guided by stimulus-based (bottom-up) and goal-oriented (top-down) control mechanisms. Recent work has pointed out that selection history (i.e., the bias to prioritize items that have been previously attended) can result in a learning experience that also has a substantial impact on subsequent attention guidance. The present study examined to what extent goal-oriented top-down control mechanisms interact with an observer's individual selection history in guiding attention. Selection history was manipulated in a categorization task in a between-subjects design, where participants learned that either color or shape was the response-relevant dimension. The impact of this experience was assessed in a compound visual search task with an additional color distractor. Top-down preparation for each search trial was enabled by a pretrial task cue (Experiment 1) or a fixed, predictable trial sequence (Experiment 2). Reaction times and ERPs served as indicators of attention deployment. Results showed that attention was captured by the color distractor when participants had learned that color predicted the correct response in the categorization learning task, suggesting that a bias for predictive stimulus features had developed. The possibility to prepare for the search task reduced the bias, but could not entirely overrule this selection history effect. In Experiment 3, both tasks were performed in separate sessions, and the bias still persisted. These results indicate that selection history considerably shapes selective attention and continues to do so persistently even when the task allowed for high top-down control. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Autism, Attention, and Alpha Oscillations: An Electrophysiological Study of Attentional Capture.

PubMed

Keehn, Brandon; Westerfield, Marissa; Müller, Ralph-Axel; Townsend, Jeanne

2017-09-01

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with deficits in adaptively orienting attention to behaviorally-relevant information. Neural oscillatory activity plays a key role in brain function and provides a high-resolution temporal marker of attention dynamics. Alpha band (8-12 Hz) activity is associated with both selecting task-relevant stimuli and filtering task-irrelevant information. The present study used electroencephalography (EEG) to examine alpha-band oscillatory activity associated with attentional capture in nineteen children with ASD and twenty-one age- and IQ-matched typically developing (TD) children. Participants completed a rapid serial visual presentation paradigm designed to investigate responses to behaviorally-relevant targets and contingent attention capture by task-irrelevant distractors, which either did or did not share a behaviorally-relevant feature. Participants also completed six minutes of eyes-open resting EEG. In contrast to their TD peers, children with ASD did not evidence posterior alpha desynchronization to behaviorally-relevant targets. Additionally, reduced target-related desynchronization and poorer target detection were associated with increased ASD symptomatology. TD children also showed behavioral and electrophysiological evidence of contingent attention capture, whereas children with ASD showed no behavioral facilitation or alpha desynchronization to distractors that shared a task-relevant feature. Lastly, children with ASD had significantly decreased resting alpha power, and for all participants increased resting alpha levels were associated with greater task-related alpha desynchronization. These results suggest that in ASD under-responsivity and impairments in orienting to salient events within their environment are reflected by atypical EEG oscillatory neurodynamics, which may signify atypical arousal levels and/or an excitatory/inhibitory imbalance.

Functionalized Nanocellulose-Integrated Heterolayered Nanomats toward Smart Battery Separators.

PubMed

Kim, Jung-Hwan; Gu, Minsu; Lee, Do Hyun; Kim, Jeong-Hoon; Oh, Yeon-Su; Min, Sa Hoon; Kim, Byeong-Su; Lee, Sang-Young

2016-09-14

Alternative materials obtained from natural resources have recently garnered considerable attention as an innovative solution to bring unprecedented advances in various energy storage systems. Here, we present a new class of heterolayered nanomat-based hierarchical/asymmetric porous membrane with synergistically coupled chemical activity as a nanocellulose-mediated green material strategy to develop smart battery separator membranes far beyond their current state-of-the-art counterparts. This membrane consists of a terpyridine (TPY)-functionalized cellulose nanofibril (CNF) nanoporous thin mat as the top layer and an electrospun polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) macroporous thick mat as the support layer. The hierarchical/asymmetric porous structure of the heterolayered nanomat is rationally designed with consideration of the trade-off between leakage current and ion transport rate. The TPY (to chelate Mn(2+) ions) and PVP (to capture hydrofluoric acid)-mediated chemical functionalities bring a synergistic coupling in suppressing Mn(2+)-induced adverse effects, eventually enabling a substantial improvement in the high-temperature cycling performance of cells.

Neural Architecture of Selective Stopping Strategies: Distinct Brain Activity Patterns Are Associated with Attentional Capture But Not with Outright Stopping.

PubMed

Sebastian, Alexandra; Rössler, Kora; Wibral, Michael; Mobascher, Arian; Lieb, Klaus; Jung, Patrick; Tüscher, Oliver

2017-10-04

In stimulus-selective stop-signal tasks, the salient stop signal needs attentional processing before genuine response inhibition is completed. Differential prefrontal involvement in attentional capture and response inhibition has been linked to the right inferior frontal junction (IFJ) and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), respectively. Recently, it has been suggested that stimulus-selective stopping may be accomplished by the following different strategies: individuals may selectively inhibit their response only upon detecting a stop signal (independent discriminate then stop strategy) or unselectively whenever detecting a stop or attentional capture signal (stop then discriminate strategy). Alternatively, the discrimination process of the critical signal (stop vs attentional capture signal) may interact with the go process (dependent discriminate then stop strategy). Those different strategies might differentially involve attention- and stopping-related processes that might be implemented by divergent neural networks. This should lead to divergent activation patterns and, if disregarded, interfere with analyses in neuroimaging studies. To clarify this crucial issue, we studied 87 human participants of both sexes during a stimulus-selective stop-signal task and performed strategy-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging analyses. We found that, regardless of the strategy applied, outright stopping displayed indistinguishable brain activation patterns. However, during attentional capture different strategies resulted in divergent neural activation patterns with variable activation of right IFJ and bilateral VLPFC. In conclusion, the neural network involved in outright stopping is ubiquitous and independent of strategy, while different strategies impact on attention-related processes and underlying neural network usage. Strategic differences should therefore be taken into account particularly when studying attention-related processes in stimulus-selective stopping. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Dissociating inhibition from attention has been a major challenge for the cognitive neuroscience of executive functions. Selective stopping tasks have been instrumental in addressing this question. However, recent theoretical, cognitive and behavioral research suggests that different strategies are applied in successful execution of the task. The underlying strategy-dependent neural networks might differ substantially. Here, we show evidence that, regardless of the strategy used, the neural network involved in outright stopping is ubiquitous. However, significant differences can only be found in the attention-related processes underlying those different strategies. Thus, when studying attentional processing of salient stop signals, strategic differences should be considered. In contrast, the neural networks implementing outright stopping seem less or not at all affected by strategic differences. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/379786-10$15.00/0.

The Roles of Feature-Specific Task Set and Bottom-Up Salience in Attentional Capture: An ERP Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eimer, Martin; Kiss, Monika; Press, Clare; Sauter, Disa

2009-01-01

We investigated the roles of top-down task set and bottom-up stimulus salience for feature-specific attentional capture. Spatially nonpredictive cues preceded search arrays that included a color-defined target. For target-color singleton cues, behavioral spatial cueing effects were accompanied by cue-induced N2pc components, indicative of…

Auditory Attentional Capture during Serial Recall: Violations at Encoding of an Algorithm-Based Neural Model?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hughes, Robert W.; Vachon, Francois; Jones, Dylan M.

2005-01-01

A novel attentional capture effect is reported in which visual-verbal serial recall was disrupted if a single deviation in the interstimulus interval occurred within otherwise regularly presented task-irrelevant spoken items. The degree of disruption was the same whether the temporal deviant was embedded in a sequence made up of a repeating item…

The Visual Hemifield Asymmetry in the Spatial Blink during Singleton Search and Feature Search

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burnham, Bryan R.; Rozell, Cassandra A.; Kasper, Alex; Bianco, Nicole E.; Delliturri, Antony

2011-01-01

The present study examined a visual field asymmetry in the contingent capture of attention that was previously observed by Du and Abrams (2010). In our first experiment, color singleton distractors that matched the color of a to-be-detected target produced a stronger capture of attention when they appeared in the left visual hemifield than in the…

Contingent capture in cueing: the role of color search templates and cue-target color relations.

PubMed

Ansorge, Ulrich; Becker, Stefanie I

2014-03-01

Visual search studies have shown that attention can be top-down biased to a specific target color, so that only items with this color or a similar color can capture attention. According to some theories of attention, colors from different categories (i.e., red, green, blue, yellow) are represented independently. However, other accounts have proposed that these are related--either because color is filtered through broad overlapping channels (4-channel view), or because colors are represented in one continuous feature space (e.g., CIE space) and search is governed by specific principles (e.g., linear separability between colors, or top-down tuning to relative colors). The present study tested these different views using a cueing experiment in which observers had to select one target color (e.g., red) and ignore two or four differently colored distractors that were presented prior to the target (cues). The results showed clear evidence for top-down contingent capture by colors, as a target-colored cue captured attention more strongly than differently colored cues. However, the results failed to support any of the proposed views that different color categories are related to one another by overlapping channels, linear separability, or relational guidance (N = 96).

Signals of threat do not capture, but prioritize, attention: a conditioning approach.

PubMed

Notebaert, Lies; Crombez, Geert; Van Damme, Stefaan; De Houwer, Jan; Theeuwes, Jan

2011-02-01

Research suggests that threatening information captures attention more rapidly than neutral information. However, in most studies threat stimuli differ perceptually from neutral stimuli and are instrumental to perform the task, leaving the question unanswered whether threat is sufficient to capture attention. In experiment 1, we designed a visual search task with stimuli of equal salience (colored circles) that have the potential to lead to efficient search (10 ms/item). In experiment 2, one of the colors (conditioned stimulus, CS+) was made threatening by means of fear conditioning. Participants responded to a target presented in one of the circles. Overall, the search was faster on congruent trials (where the target was presented in the CS+) than on baseline trials (where the CS + was absent). Furthermore, the search was slower on incongruent trials (where the target was presented in another color than the CS+) than on baseline trials. The search on congruent trials was affected by set size (90 ms/item), but to a lesser extent than on baseline trials (105 ms/item). We conclude that threat prioritizes, but does not capture attention. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

Bullets versus burgers: is it threat or relevance that captures attention?

PubMed

de Oca, Beatrice M; Black, Alison A

2013-01-01

Previous studies have found that potentially dangerous stimuli are better at capturing attention than neutral stimuli, a finding sometimes called the threat superiority effect. However, non-threatening stimuli also capture attention in many studies of visual attention. In Experiment 1, the relevance superiority effect was tested with a visual search task comparing detection times for threatening stimuli (guns), pleasant but motivationally relevant stimuli (food), and neutral stimuli (flowers and chairs). Gun targets were detected more rapidly than both types of neutral targets, whereas food targets were detected more quickly than the neutral chair targets only. Guns were detected more rapidly than food. In Experiment 2, threatening targets (guns and snakes), pleasant but motivationally relevant targets (money and food), and neutral targets (trees and couches) were all presented with the same neutral distractors (cactus and pots) in order to control for the valence of the distractor stimulus across the three categories of target stimuli. Threatening and pleasant target categories facilitated attention relative to neutral targets. The results support the view that both threatening and pleasant pictures can be detected more rapidly than neutral targets.

Amygdala lesions in rhesus macaques decrease attention to threat

PubMed Central

Dal Monte, Olga; Costa, Vincent D.; Noble, Pamela L.; Murray, Elisabeth A.; Averbeck, Bruno B.

2015-01-01

Evidence from animal and human studies has suggested that the amygdala plays a role in detecting threat and in directing attention to the eyes. Nevertheless, there has been no systematic investigation of whether the amygdala specifically facilitates attention to the eyes or whether other features can also drive attention via amygdala processing. The goal of the present study was to examine the effects of amygdala lesions in rhesus monkeys on attentional capture by specific facial features, as well as gaze patterns and changes in pupil dilation during free viewing. Here we show reduced attentional capture by threat stimuli, specifically the mouth, and reduced exploration of the eyes in free viewing in monkeys with amygdala lesions. Our findings support a role for the amygdala in detecting threat signals and in directing attention to the eye region of faces when freely viewing different expressions. PMID:26658670

Threat captures attention but does not affect learning of contextual regularities.

PubMed

Yamaguchi, Motonori; Harwood, Sarah L

2017-04-01

Some of the stimulus features that guide visual attention are abstract properties of objects such as potential threat to one's survival, whereas others are complex configurations such as visual contexts that are learned through past experiences. The present study investigated the two functions that guide visual attention, threat detection and learning of contextual regularities, in visual search. Search arrays contained images of threat and non-threat objects, and their locations were fixed on some trials but random on other trials. Although they were irrelevant to the visual search task, threat objects facilitated attention capture and impaired attention disengagement. Search time improved for fixed configurations more than for random configurations, reflecting learning of visual contexts. Nevertheless, threat detection had little influence on learning of the contextual regularities. The results suggest that factors guiding visual attention are different from factors that influence learning to guide visual attention.

Mesoporous fluorocarbon-modified silica aerogel membranes enabling long-term continuous CO2 capture with large absorption flux enhancements.

PubMed

Lin, Yi-Feng; Chen, Chien-Hua; Tung, Kuo-Lun; Wei, Te-Yu; Lu, Shih-Yuan; Chang, Kai-Shiun

2013-03-01

The use of a membrane contactor combined with a hydrophobic porous membrane and an amine absorbent has attracted considerable attention for the capture of CO2 because of its extensive use, low operational costs, and low energy consumption. The hydrophobic porous membrane interface prevents the passage of the amine absorbent but allows the penetration of CO2 molecules that are captured by the amine absorbent. Herein, highly porous SiO2 aerogels modified with hydrophobic fluorocarbon functional groups (CF3 ) were successfully coated onto a macroporous Al2 O3 membrane; their performance in a membrane contactor for CO2 absorption is discussed. The SiO2 aerogel membrane modified with CF3 functional groups exhibits the highest CO2 absorption flux and can be continuously operated for CO2 absorption for extended periods of time. This study suggests that a SiO2 aerogel membrane modified with CF3 functional groups could potentially be used in a membrane contactor for CO2 absorption. Also, the resulting hydrophobic SiO2 aerogel membrane contactor is a promising technology for large-scale CO2 absorption during the post-combustion process in power plants. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Oculomotor capture by colour singletons depends on intertrial priming.

PubMed

Becker, Stefanie I

2010-10-12

In visual search, an irrelevant colour singleton captures attention when the colour of the distractor changes across trials (e.g., from red to green), but not when the colour remains constant (Becker, 2007). The present study shows that intertrial changes of the distractor colour also modulate oculomotor capture: an irrelevant colour singleton distractor was only selected more frequently than the inconspicuous nontargets (1) when its features had switched (compared to the previous trial), or (2) when the distractor had been presented at the same position as the target on the previous trial. These results throw doubt on the notion that colour distractors capture attention and the eyes because of their high feature contrast, which is available at an earlier point in time than information about specific feature values. Instead, attention and eye movements are apparently controlled by a system that operates on feature-specific information, and gauges the informativity of nominally irrelevant features. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluating automatic attentional capture by self-relevant information.

PubMed

Ocampo, Brenda; Kahan, Todd A

2016-01-01

Our everyday decisions and memories are inadvertently influenced by self-relevant information. For example, we are faster and more accurate at making perceptual judgments about stimuli associated with ourselves, such as our own face or name, as compared with familiar non-self-relevant stimuli. Humphreys and Sui propose a "self-attention network" to account for these effects, wherein self-relevant stimuli automatically capture our attention and subsequently enhance the perceptual processing of self-relevant information. We propose that the masked priming paradigm and continuous flash suppression represent two ways to experimentally examine these controversial claims.

Age mediation of frontoparietal activation during visual feature search.

PubMed

Madden, David J; Parks, Emily L; Davis, Simon W; Diaz, Michele T; Potter, Guy G; Chou, Ying-hui; Chen, Nan-kuei; Cabeza, Roberto

2014-11-15

Activation of frontal and parietal brain regions is associated with attentional control during visual search. We used fMRI to characterize age-related differences in frontoparietal activation in a highly efficient feature search task, detection of a shape singleton. On half of the trials, a salient distractor (a color singleton) was present in the display. The hypothesis was that frontoparietal activation mediated the relation between age and attentional capture by the salient distractor. Participants were healthy, community-dwelling individuals, 21 younger adults (19-29 years of age) and 21 older adults (60-87 years of age). Top-down attention, in the form of target predictability, was associated with an improvement in search performance that was comparable for younger and older adults. The increase in search reaction time (RT) associated with the salient distractor (attentional capture), standardized to correct for generalized age-related slowing, was greater for older adults than for younger adults. On trials with a color singleton distractor, search RT increased as a function of increasing activation in frontal regions, for both age groups combined, suggesting increased task difficulty. Mediational analyses disconfirmed the hypothesized model, in which frontal activation mediated the age-related increase in attentional capture, but supported an alternative model in which age was a mediator of the relation between frontal activation and capture. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Rewarded visual items capture attention only in heterogeneous contexts.

PubMed

Feldmann-Wüstefeld, Tobias; Brandhofer, Ruben; Schubö, Anna

2016-07-01

Reward is known to affect visual search performance. Rewarding targets can increase search performance, whereas rewarding distractors can decrease search performance. We used subcomponents of the N2pc in the event-related EEG, the NT (target negativity) and ND /PD (distractor negativity/positivity), in a visual search task to disentangle target and distractor processing related to reward. The visual search task comprised homogeneous and heterogeneous contexts in which a target and a colored distractor were embedded. After each correct trial, participants were given a monetary reward that depended on the color of the distractor. We found longer response times for displays with high-reward distractors compared to displays with low-reward distractors, indicating reward-induced interference, however, only for heterogeneous contexts. The NT component, indicative of attention deployment to the target, showed that target selection was impaired by high-reward distractors, regardless of the context homogeneity. Processing of distractors was not affected by reward in homogeneous contexts. In heterogeneous contexts, however, high-reward distractors were more likely to capture attention (ND ) and required more effort to be suppressed (PD ) than low-reward distractors. In sum the results showed that, despite the fact that target selection is impaired by high-reward distractors in both homogeneous and heterogeneous background contexts, high-reward distractors capture attention only in scenarios that foster attentional capture. © 2016 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Nutrition warnings as front-of-pack labels: influence of design features on healthfulness perception and attentional capture.

PubMed

Cabrera, Manuel; Machín, Leandro; Arrúa, Alejandra; Antúnez, Lucía; Curutchet, María Rosa; Giménez, Ana; Ares, Gastón

2017-12-01

Warnings are a new directive front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labelling scheme that highlights products with high content of key nutrients. The design of warnings influences their ability to catch consumers' attention and to clearly communicate their intended meaning, which are key determinants of their effectiveness. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the influence of design features of warnings as a FOP nutrition labelling scheme on perceived healthfulness and attentional capture. Five studies with a total of 496 people were carried out. In the first study, the association of colour and perceived healthfulness was evaluated in an online survey in which participants had to rate their perceived healthfulness of eight colours. In the second study, the influence of colour, shape and textual information on perceived healthfulness was evaluated using choice-conjoint analysis. The third study focused on implicit associations between two design features (shape and colour) on perceived healthfulness. The fourth and fifth studies used visual search to evaluate the influence of colour, size and position of the warnings on attentional capture. Perceived healthfulness was significantly influenced by shape, colour and textual information. Colour was the variable with the largest contribution to perceived healthfulness. Colour, size and position of the warnings on the labels affected attentional capture. Results from the experiments provide recommendations for the design of warnings to identify products with unfavourable nutrient profile.

Capture Their Attention: Capturing Lessons Using Screen Capture Software

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drumheller, Kristina; Lawler, Gregg

2011-01-01

When students miss classes for university activities such as athletic and academic events, they inevitably miss important class material. Students can get notes from their peers or visit professors to find out what they missed, but when students miss new and challenging material these steps are sometimes not enough. Screen capture and recording…

Strength analysis of piezoceramic materials for structural considerations in energy harvesting for UAVs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anton, S. R.; Erturk, A.; Inman, D. J.

2010-04-01

Vibration energy harvesting has received considerable attention in the research community over the past decade. Typical vibration harvesting systems are designed to be added on to existing host structures and capture ambient vibration energy. An interesting application of vibration energy harvesting exists in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), where a multifunctional approach, as opposed to the traditional method, is needed due to weight and aerodynamic considerations. The authors propose a multifunctional design for energy harvesting in UAVs where the piezoelectric harvesting device is integrated into the wing of a UAV and provides energy harvesting, energy storage, and load bearing capability. The brittle piezoceramic layer of the harvester is a critical member in load bearing applications; therefore, it is the goal of this research to investigate the bending strength of various common piezoceramic materials. Three-point bend tests are carried out on several piezoelectric ceramics including monolithic piezoceramics PZT-5A and PZT-5H, single crystal piezoelectric PMN-PZT, and commercially packaged QuickPack devices. Bending strength results are reported and can be used as a design tool in the development of piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting systems in which the active device is subjected to bending loads.

Signal enhancement, not active suppression, follows the contingent capture of visual attention.

PubMed

Livingstone, Ashley C; Christie, Gregory J; Wright, Richard D; McDonald, John J

2017-02-01

Irrelevant visual cues capture attention when they possess a task-relevant feature. Electrophysiologically, this contingent capture of attention is evidenced by the N2pc component of the visual event-related potential (ERP) and an enlarged ERP positivity over the occipital hemisphere contralateral to the cued location. The N2pc reflects an early stage of attentional selection, but presently it is unclear what the contralateral ERP positivity reflects. One hypothesis is that it reflects the perceptual enhancement of the cued search-array item; another hypothesis is that it is time-locked to the preceding cue display and reflects active suppression of the cue itself. Here, we varied the time interval between a cue display and a subsequent target display to evaluate these competing hypotheses. The results demonstrated that the contralateral ERP positivity is tightly time-locked to the appearance of the search display rather than the cue display, thereby supporting the perceptual enhancement hypothesis and disconfirming the cue-suppression hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

An Integrative Account of Constraints on Cross-Situational Learning

PubMed Central

Yurovsky, Daniel; Frank, Michael C.

2015-01-01

Word-object co-occurrence statistics are a powerful information source for vocabulary learning, but there is considerable debate about how learners actually use them. While some theories hold that learners accumulate graded, statistical evidence about multiple referents for each word, others suggest that they track only a single candidate referent. In two large-scale experiments, we show that neither account is sufficient: Cross-situational learning involves elements of both. Further, the empirical data are captured by a computational model that formalizes how memory and attention interact with co-occurrence tracking. Together, the data and model unify opposing positions in a complex debate and underscore the value of understanding the interaction between computational and algorithmic levels of explanation. PMID:26302052

Topological Structures in Multiferroics - Domain Walls, Skyrmions and Vortices

DOE PAGES

Seidel, Jan; Vasudevan, Rama K.; Valanoor, Nagarajan

2015-12-15

Topological structures in multiferroic materials have recently received considerable attention because of their potential use as nanoscale functional elements. Their reduced size in conjunction with exotic arrangement of the ferroic order parameter and potential order parameter coupling allows for emergent and unexplored phenomena in condensed matter and functional materials systems. This will lead to exciting new fundamental discoveries as well as application concepts that exploit their response to external stimuli such as mechanical strain, electric and magnetic fields. In this review we capture the current development of this rapidly moving field with specific emphasis on key achievements that have castmore » light on how such topological structures in multiferroic materials systems can be exploited for use in complex oxide nanoelectronics and spintronics.« less

N250r and N400 ERP correlates of immediate famous face repetition are independent of perceptual load.

PubMed

Neumann, Markus F; Schweinberger, Stefan R

2008-11-06

It is a matter of considerable debate whether attention to initial stimulus presentations is required for repetition-related neural modulations to occur. Recently, it has been assumed that faces are particularly hard to ignore, and can capture attention in a reflexive manner. In line with this idea, electrophysiological evidence for long-term repetition effects of unattended famous faces has been reported. The present study investigated influences of attention to prime faces on short-term repetition effects in event-related potentials (ERPs). We manipulated attention to short (200 ms) prime presentations (S1) of task-irrelevant famous faces according to Lavie's Perceptual Load Theory. Participants attended to letter strings superimposed on face images, and identified target letters "X" vs. "N" embedded in strings of either 6 different (high load) or 6 identical (low load) letters. Letter identification was followed by probe presentations (S2), which were either repetitions of S1 faces, new famous faces, or infrequent butterflies, to which participants responded. Our ERP data revealed repetition effects in terms of an N250r at occipito-temporal regions, suggesting priming of face identification processes, and in terms of an N400 at the vertex, suggesting semantic priming. Crucially, the magnitude of these effects was unaffected by perceptual load at S1 presentation. This indicates that task-irrelevant face processing is remarkably preserved even in a demanding letter detection task, supporting recent notions of face-specific attentional resources.

Development of a cost-effective CO2 adsorbent from petroleum coke via KOH activation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jang, Eunji; Choi, Seung Wan; Hong, Seok-Min; Shin, Sangcheol; Lee, Ki Bong

2018-01-01

The capture of CO2 via adsorption is considered an effective technology for decreasing global warming issues; hence, adsorbents for CO2 capture have been actively developed. Taking into account cost-effectiveness and environmental concerns, the development of CO2 adsorbents from waste materials is attracting considerable attention. In this study, petroleum coke (PC), which is the carbon residue remaining after heavy oil upgrading, was used to produce high-value-added porous carbon for CO2 capture. Porous carbon materials were prepared by KOH activation using different weight ratios of KOH/PC (1:1, 2:1, 3:1, and 4:1) and activation temperatures (600, 700, and 800 °C). The specific surface area and total pore volume of resulting porous carbon materials increased with KOH amount, reaching up to 2433 m2/g and 1.11 cm3/g, respectively. The sample prepared under moderate conditions with a KOH/PC weight ratio of 2:1 and activation temperature of 700 °C exhibited the highest CO2 adsorption uptake of 3.68 mmol/g at 25 °C and 1 bar. Interestingly, CO2 adsorption uptake was linearly correlated with the volume of micropores less than 0.8 nm, indicating that narrow micropore volume is crucial for CO2 adsorption. The prepared porous carbon materials also exhibited good selectivity for CO2 over N2, rapid adsorption, facile regeneration, and stable adsorption-desorption cyclic performance, demonstrating potential as a candidate for CO2 capture.

Remote sensing image segmentation using local sparse structure constrained latent low rank representation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tian, Shu; Zhang, Ye; Yan, Yimin; Su, Nan; Zhang, Junping

2016-09-01

Latent low-rank representation (LatLRR) has been attached considerable attention in the field of remote sensing image segmentation, due to its effectiveness in exploring the multiple subspace structures of data. However, the increasingly heterogeneous texture information in the high spatial resolution remote sensing images, leads to more severe interference of pixels in local neighborhood, and the LatLRR fails to capture the local complex structure information. Therefore, we present a local sparse structure constrainted latent low-rank representation (LSSLatLRR) segmentation method, which explicitly imposes the local sparse structure constraint on LatLRR to capture the intrinsic local structure in manifold structure feature subspaces. The whole segmentation framework can be viewed as two stages in cascade. In the first stage, we use the local histogram transform to extract the texture local histogram features (LHOG) at each pixel, which can efficiently capture the complex and micro-texture pattern. In the second stage, a local sparse structure (LSS) formulation is established on LHOG, which aims to preserve the local intrinsic structure and enhance the relationship between pixels having similar local characteristics. Meanwhile, by integrating the LSS and the LatLRR, we can efficiently capture the local sparse and low-rank structure in the mixture of feature subspace, and we adopt the subspace segmentation method to improve the segmentation accuracy. Experimental results on the remote sensing images with different spatial resolution show that, compared with three state-of-the-art image segmentation methods, the proposed method achieves more accurate segmentation results.

Using eye tracking to test for individual differences in attention to attractive faces

PubMed Central

Valuch, Christian; Pflüger, Lena S.; Wallner, Bernard; Laeng, Bruno; Ansorge, Ulrich

2015-01-01

We assessed individual differences in visual attention toward faces in relation to their attractiveness via saccadic reaction times. Motivated by the aim to understand individual differences in attention to faces, we tested three hypotheses: (a) Attractive faces hold or capture attention more effectively than less attractive faces; (b) men show a stronger bias toward attractive opposite-sex faces than women; and (c) blue-eyed men show a stronger bias toward blue-eyed than brown-eyed feminine faces. The latter test was included because prior research suggested a high effect size. Our data supported hypotheses (a) and (b) but not (c). By conducting separate tests for disengagement of attention and attention capture, we found that individual differences exist at distinct stages of attentional processing but these differences are of varying robustness and importance. In our conclusion, we also advocate the use of linear mixed effects models as the most appropriate statistical approach for studying inter-individual differences in visual attention with naturalistic stimuli. PMID:25698993

The interactions of multisensory integration with endogenous and exogenous attention

PubMed Central

Tang, Xiaoyu; Wu, Jinglong; Shen, Yong

2016-01-01

Stimuli from multiple sensory organs can be integrated into a coherent representation through multiple phases of multisensory processing; this phenomenon is called multisensory integration. Multisensory integration can interact with attention. Here, we propose a framework in which attention modulates multisensory processing in both endogenous (goal-driven) and exogenous (stimulus-driven) ways. Moreover, multisensory integration exerts not only bottom-up but also top-down control over attention. Specifically, we propose the following: (1) endogenous attentional selectivity acts on multiple levels of multisensory processing to determine the extent to which simultaneous stimuli from different modalities can be integrated; (2) integrated multisensory events exert top-down control on attentional capture via multisensory search templates that are stored in the brain; (3) integrated multisensory events can capture attention efficiently, even in quite complex circumstances, due to their increased salience compared to unimodal events and can thus improve search accuracy; and (4) within a multisensory object, endogenous attention can spread from one modality to another in an exogenous manner. PMID:26546734

The interactions of multisensory integration with endogenous and exogenous attention.

PubMed

Tang, Xiaoyu; Wu, Jinglong; Shen, Yong

2016-02-01

Stimuli from multiple sensory organs can be integrated into a coherent representation through multiple phases of multisensory processing; this phenomenon is called multisensory integration. Multisensory integration can interact with attention. Here, we propose a framework in which attention modulates multisensory processing in both endogenous (goal-driven) and exogenous (stimulus-driven) ways. Moreover, multisensory integration exerts not only bottom-up but also top-down control over attention. Specifically, we propose the following: (1) endogenous attentional selectivity acts on multiple levels of multisensory processing to determine the extent to which simultaneous stimuli from different modalities can be integrated; (2) integrated multisensory events exert top-down control on attentional capture via multisensory search templates that are stored in the brain; (3) integrated multisensory events can capture attention efficiently, even in quite complex circumstances, due to their increased salience compared to unimodal events and can thus improve search accuracy; and (4) within a multisensory object, endogenous attention can spread from one modality to another in an exogenous manner. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using eye tracking to test for individual differences in attention to attractive faces.

PubMed

Valuch, Christian; Pflüger, Lena S; Wallner, Bernard; Laeng, Bruno; Ansorge, Ulrich

2015-01-01

We assessed individual differences in visual attention toward faces in relation to their attractiveness via saccadic reaction times. Motivated by the aim to understand individual differences in attention to faces, we tested three hypotheses: (a) Attractive faces hold or capture attention more effectively than less attractive faces; (b) men show a stronger bias toward attractive opposite-sex faces than women; and (c) blue-eyed men show a stronger bias toward blue-eyed than brown-eyed feminine faces. The latter test was included because prior research suggested a high effect size. Our data supported hypotheses (a) and (b) but not (c). By conducting separate tests for disengagement of attention and attention capture, we found that individual differences exist at distinct stages of attentional processing but these differences are of varying robustness and importance. In our conclusion, we also advocate the use of linear mixed effects models as the most appropriate statistical approach for studying inter-individual differences in visual attention with naturalistic stimuli.

Mixed models approaches for joint modeling of different types of responses.

PubMed

Ivanova, Anna; Molenberghs, Geert; Verbeke, Geert

2016-01-01

In many biomedical studies, one jointly collects longitudinal continuous, binary, and survival outcomes, possibly with some observations missing. Random-effects models, sometimes called shared-parameter models or frailty models, received a lot of attention. In such models, the corresponding variance components can be employed to capture the association between the various sequences. In some cases, random effects are considered common to various sequences, perhaps up to a scaling factor; in others, there are different but correlated random effects. Even though a variety of data types has been considered in the literature, less attention has been devoted to ordinal data. For univariate longitudinal or hierarchical data, the proportional odds mixed model (POMM) is an instance of the generalized linear mixed model (GLMM; Breslow and Clayton, 1993). Ordinal data are conveniently replaced by a parsimonious set of dummies, which in the longitudinal setting leads to a repeated set of dummies. When ordinal longitudinal data are part of a joint model, the complexity increases further. This is the setting considered in this paper. We formulate a random-effects based model that, in addition, allows for overdispersion. Using two case studies, it is shown that the combination of random effects to capture association with further correction for overdispersion can improve the model's fit considerably and that the resulting models allow to answer research questions that could not be addressed otherwise. Parameters can be estimated in a fairly straightforward way, using the SAS procedure NLMIXED.

The Attention Cascade Model and Attentional Blink

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shih, Shui-I

2008-01-01

An attention cascade model is proposed to account for attentional blinks in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of stimuli. Data were collected using single characters in a single RSVP stream at 10 Hz [Shih, S., & Reeves, A. (2007). "Attentional capture in rapid serial visual presentation." "Spatial Vision", 20(4), 301-315], and single words,…

Different strategies for the detection of bioagents using electrochemical and photoelectrochemical genosensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Voccia, Diego; Bettazi, Francesca; Palchetti, Ilaria

2015-10-01

In recent years various kinds of biosensors for the detection of pathogens have been developed. A genosensor consists in the immobilization, onto the surface of a chosen transducer, of an oligonucleotide with a specific base sequence called capture probe. The complementary sequence (the analytical target, i.e. a specific sequence of the DNA/RNA of the pathogen) present in the sample is recognized and captured by the probe through the hybridization reaction. The evaluation of the extent of the hybridization allows one to confirm whether the sample contains the complementary sequence of the probe or not. Electrochemical transducers have received considerable attention in connection with the detection of DNA hybridization. Moreover, recently, with the emergence of novel photoelectrochemically active species and new detection schemes, photoelectrochemistry has resulted in substantial progress in its analytical performance for biosensing applications. In this paper, some examples of electrochemical genosensors for multiplexed pathogen detection are shown. Moreover, the preliminary experiments towards the development of a photoelectrochemical genosensor using a TiO2 - nanocrystal-modified ITO electrode are discussed.

Top-Down Prioritization of Salient Items May Produce the So-Called Stimulus-Driven Capture

PubMed Central

Benoni, Hanna

2018-01-01

The current study proposes that top-down attentional prioritization of salient items may produce the so-called stimulus-driven capture. To test this proposal, the “expectation-based paradigm” was designed on the basis of a visual search task. In Experiment 1, a task-irrelevant singleton frame was presented at the same location in 70% of the trials. The target was either presented at chance level within the singleton location, or away from it. In line with the singleton capture phenomenon, participants were faster in identifying the target when it appeared in the singleton location compared to non-singleton locations. However, leaving out the singleton frame in 30% of the trials led to a similar effect; participants were faster in identifying the target when it appeared in the expected singleton location compared to expected non-singletons locations (a “quasi-capture” effect). These results suggest that the participants allocated their attention to the expected singleton location, rather than that the singleton itself captured attention. In Experiment 2, the same task-irrelevant color singleton was presented in a random position in 70% of the trials. This color frame was shown as a non-singleton in all of the 30% singleton-absent multicolored trials. A similar facilitation effect was obtained when the target appeared in the expected singleton color frame compared to other frames, in singleton-absent trials as in singleton-present trials. These results further support the idea that instances of singleton capture can be explained by top-down attentional shifts toward singleton items. Theoretical implications of these results are discussed. Mostly, the study calls to consider the possibility that all sources of attentional control may be represented by a continuous variable of top-down control, including the category of “physical salience.” PMID:29599731

Distinct roles of theta and alpha oscillations in the involuntary capture of goal-directed attention.

PubMed

Harris, Anthony M; Dux, Paul E; Jones, Caelyn N; Mattingley, Jason B

2017-05-15

Mechanisms of attention assign priority to sensory inputs on the basis of current task goals. Previous studies have shown that lateralized neural oscillations within the alpha (8-14Hz) range are associated with the voluntary allocation of attention to the contralateral visual field. It is currently unknown, however, whether similar oscillatory signatures instantiate the involuntary capture of spatial attention by goal-relevant stimulus properties. Here we investigated the roles of theta (4-8Hz), alpha, and beta (14-30Hz) oscillations in human goal-directed visual attention. Across two experiments, we had participants respond to a brief target of a particular color among heterogeneously colored distractors. Prior to target onset, we cued one location with a lateralized, non-predictive cue that was either target- or non-target-colored. During the behavioral task, we recorded brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG), with the aim of analyzing cue-elicited oscillatory activity. We found that theta oscillations lateralized in response to all cues, and this lateralization was stronger if the cue matched the target color. Alpha oscillations lateralized relatively later, and only in response to target-colored cues, consistent with the capture of spatial attention. Our findings suggest that stimulus induced changes in theta and alpha amplitude reflect task-based modulation of signals by feature-based and spatial attention, respectively. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Combined Electrophysiological and Behavioral Evidence for the Suppression of Salient Distractors.

PubMed

Gaspelin, Nicholas; Luck, Steven J

2018-05-15

Researchers have long debated how salient-but-irrelevant features guide visual attention. Pure stimulus-driven theories claim that salient stimuli automatically capture attention irrespective of goals, whereas pure goal-driven theories propose that an individual's attentional control settings determine whether salient stimuli capture attention. However, recent studies have suggested a hybrid model in which salient stimuli attract visual attention but can be actively suppressed by top-down attentional mechanisms. Support for this hybrid model has primarily come from ERP studies demonstrating that salient stimuli, which fail to capture attention, also elicit a distractor positivity (P D ) component, a putative neural index of suppression. Other support comes from a handful of behavioral studies showing that processing at the salient locations is inhibited compared with other locations. The current study was designed to link the behavioral and neural evidence by combining ERP recordings with an experimental paradigm that provides a behavioral measure of suppression. We found that, when a salient distractor item elicited the P D component, processing at the location of this distractor was suppressed below baseline levels. Furthermore, the magnitude of behavioral suppression and the magnitude of the P D component covaried across participants. These findings provide a crucial connection between the behavioral and neural measures of suppression, which opens the door to using the P D component to assess the timing and neural substrates of the behaviorally observed suppression.

Social reward shapes attentional biases.

PubMed

Anderson, Brian A

2016-01-01

Paying attention to stimuli that predict a reward outcome is important for an organism to survive and thrive. When visual stimuli are associated with tangible, extrinsic rewards such as money or food, these stimuli acquire high attentional priority and come to automatically capture attention. In humans and other primates, however, many behaviors are not motivated directly by such extrinsic rewards, but rather by the social feedback that results from performing those behaviors. In the present study, I examine whether positive social feedback can similarly influence attentional bias. The results show that stimuli previously associated with a high probability of positive social feedback elicit value-driven attentional capture, much like stimuli associated with extrinsic rewards. Unlike with extrinsic rewards, however, such stimuli also influence task-specific motivation. My findings offer a potential mechanism by which social reward shapes the information that we prioritize when perceiving the world around us.

Object onset and parvocellular guidance of attentional allocation.

PubMed

Cole, Geoff G; Kentridge, Robert W; Heywood, Charles A

2005-04-01

The parvocellular visual pathway in the primate brain is known to be involved with the processing of color. However, a subject of debate is whether an abrupt change in color, conveyed via this pathway, is capable of automatically attracting attention. It has been shown that the appearance of new objects defined solely by color is indeed capable of modulating attention. However, given evidence suggesting that the visual system is particularly sensitive to new onsets, it is unclear to what extent such results reflect effects of color change per se, rather than effects of object onset. We assessed attentional capture by color change that occurred as a result of either new objects appearing or already-present "old" objects changing color. Results showed that although new object onsets accrued attention, changing the color of old objects did not. We conclude that abrupt color change per se is not sufficient to capture attention.

Implicit learning modulates attention capture: evidence from an item-specific proportion congruency manipulation.

PubMed

Thomson, David R; Willoughby, Karen; Milliken, Bruce

2014-01-01

A host of research has now shown that our explicit goals and intentions can, in large part, overcome the capture of visual attention by objects that differ from their surroundings in terms of size, shape, or color. Surprisingly however, there is little evidence for the role of implicit learning in mitigating capture effects despite the fact that such learning has been shown to strongly affect behavior in a host of other performance domains. Here, we employ a modified attention capture paradigm, based on the work of Theeuwes (1991, 1992), in which participants must search for an odd-shaped target amongst homogeneous distracters. On each trial, there is also a salient, but irrelevant odd-colored distracter. Across the experiments reported, we intermix two search contexts: for one set of distracters (e.g., squares) the shape singleton and color singleton coincide on a majority of trials (high proportion congruent condition), whereas for the other set of distracters (e.g., circles) the shape and color singletons are highly unlikely to coincide (low proportion congruent condition). Crucially, we find that observers learn to allow the capture of attention by the salient distracter to a greater extent in the high, compared to the low proportion congruent condition, albeit only when search is sufficiently difficult. Moreover, this effect of prior experience on search behavior occurs in the absence of awareness of our proportion manipulation. We argue that low-level properties of the search displays recruit representations of prior experience in a rapid, flexible, and implicit manner.

Attending to items in working memory: Evidence that refreshing and memory search are closely related

PubMed Central

Vergauwe, Evie; Cowan, Nelson

2014-01-01

Refreshing refers to the use of attention to reactivate items in working memory (WM). The current study aims at testing the hypothesis that refreshing is closely related to memory search. The assumption is that refreshing and memory search both rely on a basic covert memory process that quickly retrieves the memory items into the focus of attention, thereby reactivating the information (Cowan, 1992; Vergauwe & Cowan, 2014). Consistent with the idea that people use their attention to prevent loss from WM, previous research has shown that increasing the proportion of time during which attention is occupied by concurrent processing, thereby preventing refreshing, results in poorer recall performance in complex span tasks (Barrouillet, Portrat, & Camos, 2011). Here, we tested whether recall performance is differentially affected by prolonged attentional capture caused by memory search. If memory search and refreshing both rely on retrieval from WM, then prolonged attentional capture caused by memory search should not lead to forgetting because memory items are assumed to be reactivated during memory search, in the same way as they would if that period of time were to be used for refreshing. Consistent with this idea, prolonged attentional capture had a disruptive effect when it was caused by the need to retrieve knowledge from long-term memory but not when it was caused by the need to search through the content of WM. The current results support the idea that refreshing operates through a process of retrieval of information into the focus of attention. PMID:25361821

Methylphenidate alters selective attention by amplifying salience.

PubMed

ter Huurne, Niels; Fallon, Sean James; van Schouwenburg, Martine; van der Schaaf, Marieke; Buitelaar, Jan; Jensen, Ole; Cools, Roshan

2015-12-01

Methylphenidate, the most common treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), is increasingly used by healthy individuals as a "smart drug" to enhance cognitive abilities like attention. A key feature of (selective) attention is the ability to ignore irrelevant but salient information in the environment (distractors). Although crucial for cognitive performance, until now, it is not known how the use of methylphenidate affects resistance to attentional capture by distractors. The present study aims to clarify how methylphenidate affects distractor suppression in healthy individuals. The effect of methylphenidate (20 mg) on distractor suppression was assessed in healthy subjects (N = 20), in a within-subject double-blind placebo-controlled crossover design. We used a visuospatial attention task with target faces flanked by strong (faces) or weak distractors (scrambled faces). Methylphenidate increased accuracy on trials that required gender identification of target face stimuli (methylphenidate 88.9 ± 1.4 [mean ± SEM], placebo 86.0 ± 1.2 %; p = .003), suggesting increased processing of the faces. At the same time, however, methylphenidate increased reaction time when the target face was flanked by a face distractor relative to a scrambled face distractor (methylphenidate 34.9 ± 3.73, placebo 26.7 ± 2.84 ms; p = .027), suggesting enhanced attentional capture by distractors with task-relevant features. We conclude that methylphenidate amplifies salience of task-relevant information at the level of the stimulus category. This leads to enhanced processing of the target (faces) but also increased attentional capture by distractors drawn from the same category as the target.

Attention to Faces in Williams Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riby, Deborah M.; Jones, Nicola; Brown, Philippa H.; Robinson, Lucy J.; Langton, Stephen R. H.; Bruce, Vicki; Riby, Leigh M.

2011-01-01

Williams syndrome (WS) is associated with distinct social behaviours. One component of the WS social phenotype is atypically prolonged face fixation. This behaviour co-exists with attention difficulties. Attention is multi-faceted and may impact on gaze behaviour in several ways. Four experiments assessed (i) attention capture by faces, (ii)…

A combined theoretical and in vitro modeling approach for predicting the magnetic capture and retention of magnetic nanoparticles in vivo

PubMed Central

David, Allan E.; Cole, Adam J.; Chertok, Beata; Park, Yoon Shin; Yang, Victor C.

2011-01-01

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) continue to draw considerable attention as potential diagnostic and therapeutic tools in the fight against cancer. Although many interacting forces present themselves during magnetic targeting of MNP to tumors, most theoretical considerations of this process ignore all except for the magnetic and drag forces. Our validation of a simple in vitro model against in vivo data, and subsequent reproduction of the in vitro results with a theoretical model indicated that these two forces do indeed dominate the magnetic capture of MNP. However, because nanoparticles can be subject to aggregation, and large MNP experience an increased magnetic force, the effects of surface forces on MNP stability cannot be ignored. We accounted for the aggregating surface forces simply by measuring the size of MNP retained from flow by magnetic fields, and utilized this size in the mathematical model. This presumably accounted for all particle-particle interactions, including those between magnetic dipoles. Thus, our “corrected” mathematical model provided a reasonable estimate of not only fractional MNP retention, but also predicted the regions of accumulation in a simulated capillary. Furthermore, the model was also utilized to calculate the effects of MNP size and spatial location, relative to the magnet, on targeting of MNPs to tumors. This combination of an in vitro model with a theoretical model could potentially assist with parametric evaluations of magnetic targeting, and enable rapid enhancement and optimization of magnetic targeting methodologies. PMID:21295085

Rapid top-down control over template-guided attention shifts to multiple objects.

PubMed

Grubert, Anna; Fahrenfort, Johannes; Olivers, Christian N L; Eimer, Martin

2017-02-01

Previous research has shown that when observers search for targets defined by a particular colour, attention can be directed rapidly and independently to two target objects that appear in close temporal proximity. We investigated how such rapid attention shifts are modulated by task instructions to selectively attend versus ignore one of these objects. Two search displays that both contained a colour-defined target and a distractor in a different colour were presented in rapid succession, with a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 100ms. In different blocks, participants were instructed to attend and respond to target-colour objects in the first display and to ignore these objects in the second display, or vice versa. N2pc components were measured to track the allocation of spatial attention to target-colour objects in these two displays. When participants responded to the second display, irrelevant target-colour objects in the first display still triggered N2pc components, demonstrating task-set contingent attentional capture while a feature-specific target template is active. Critically, when participants responded to the first display instead, no N2pc was elicited by target-colour items in the second display, indicating that they no longer rapidly captured attention. However, these items still elicited a longer-latency contralateral negativity (SPCN component), suggesting that attention was oriented towards template-matching objects in working memory. This dissociation between N2pc and SPCN components shows that rapid attentional capture and subsequent attentional selection processes within working memory can be independent. We suggest that early attentional orienting mechanisms can be inhibited when task-set matching objects are no longer task-relevant, and that this type of inhibitory control is a rapid but transient process. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The influence of animal fear on attentional capture by fear-relevant animal stimuli in children.

PubMed

Waters, Allison M; Lipp, Ottmar V

2008-01-01

The present study demonstrated that pictures of fear-relevant animals, snakes and spiders, presented among backgrounds of other animal stimuli captured attention and interfered in the detection of a neutral target to the same extent in a large sample of unselected children (N=81). Moreover, detection of a neutral target animal was slowed more in the presence of a feared fear-relevant distracter, e.g., a snake for snake fearful children, than in the presence of a not feared fear-relevant distracter, e.g., a spider for snake fearful children. These results indicate attentional capture by phylogenetically fear-relevant animal stimuli in children and the selective enhancement of this effect by fear of these animals. These findings are consistent with current models of preferential processing of phylogenetically prepared threat stimuli and with cognitive models of anxiety that propose an enhancing effect of fear in the processing of fear-related stimuli.

The importance of age-related differences in prospective memory: Evidence from diffusion model analyses.

PubMed

Ball, B Hunter; Aschenbrenner, Andrew J

2017-06-09

Event-based prospective memory (PM) refers to relying on environmental cues to trigger retrieval of a deferred action plan from long-term memory. Considerable research has demonstrated PM declines with increased age. Despite efforts to better characterize the attentional processes that underlie these decrements, the majority of research has relied on measures of central tendency to inform theoretical accounts of PM that may not entirely capture the underlying dynamics involved in allocating attention to intention-relevant information. The purpose of the current study was to examine the utility of the diffusion model to better understand the cognitive processes underlying age-related differences in PM. Results showed that emphasizing the importance of the PM intention increased cue detection selectively for older adults. Standard cost analyses revealed that PM importance increased mean response times and accuracy, but not differentially for young and older adults. Consistent with this finding, diffusion model analyses demonstrated that PM importance increased response caution as evidenced by increased boundary separation. However, the selective benefit in cue detection for older adults may reflect peripheral target-checking processes as indicated by changes in nondecision time. These findings highlight the use of modeling techniques to better characterize the processes underlying the relations among aging, attention, and PM.

The Application of Fluorescent Quantum Dots to Confocal, Multiphoton, and Electron Microscopic Imaging

PubMed Central

Deerinck, Thomas J.

2009-01-01

Fluorescent quantum dots are emerging as an important tool for imaging cells and tissues, and their unique optical and physical properties have captured the attention of the research community. The most common types of commercially available quantum dots consist of a nanocrystalline semiconductor core composed of cadmium selenide with a zinc sulfide capping layer and an outer polymer layer to facilitate conjugation to targeting biomolecules such as immunoglobulins. They exhibit high fluorescent quantum yields and have large absorption cross-sections, possess excellent photostability, and can be synthesized so that their narrow-band fluorescence emission can occur in a wide spectrum of colors. These properties make them excellent candidates for serving as multiplexing molecular beacons using a variety of imaging modalities including highly correlated microscopies. Whereas much attention has been focused on quantum-dot applications for live-cell imaging, we have sought to characterize and exploit their utility for enabling simultaneous multiprotein immunolabeling in fixed cells and tissues. Considerations for their application to immunolabeling for correlated light and electron microscopic analysis are discussed. PMID:18337229

Stone circles: form and soil kinematics.

PubMed

Hallet, Bernard

2013-12-13

Distinct surface patterns are ubiquitous and diverse in soils of polar and alpine regions, where the ground temperature oscillates about 0 degrees C. They constitute some of the most striking examples of clearly visible, abiotic self-organization in nature. This paper outlines the interplay of frost-related physical processes that produce these patterns spontaneously and presents unique data documenting subsurface soil rotational motion and surface displacement spanning 20 years in well-developed circles of soil outlined by gravel ridges. These sorted circles are particularly attractive research targets for a number of reasons that provide focus for this paper: (i) their exceptional geometric regularity captures the attention of any observer; (ii) they are currently forming and evolving, hence the underlying processes can be monitored readily, especially because they are localized near the ground surface on a scale of metres, which facilitates comprehensive characterization; and (iii) a recent, highly successful numerical model of sorted circle development helps to draw attention to particular field observations that can be used to assess the model, its assumptions and parameter choices, and to the considerable potential for synergetic field and modelling studies.

Stone circles: form and soil kinematics.

PubMed

Hallet, Bernard

2013-01-01

Distinct surface patterns are ubiquitous and diverse in soils of polar and alpine regions, where the ground temperature oscillates about 0°C. They constitute some of the most striking examples of clearly visible, abiotic self-organization in nature. This paper outlines the interplay of frost-related physical processes that produce these patterns spontaneously and presents unique data documenting subsurface soil rotational motion and surface displacement spanning 20 years in well-developed circles of soil outlined by gravel ridges. These sorted circles are particularly attractive research targets for a number of reasons that provide focus for this paper: (i) their exceptional geometric regularity captures the attention of any observer; (ii) they are currently forming and evolving, hence the underlying processes can be monitored readily, especially because they are localized near the ground surface on a scale of metres, which facilitates comprehensive characterization; and (iii) a recent, highly successful numerical model of sorted circle development helps to draw attention to particular field observations that can be used to assess the model, its assumptions and parameter choices, and to the considerable potential for synergetic field and modelling studies.

Visual attention in violent offenders: Susceptibility to distraction.

PubMed

Slotboom, Jantine; Hoppenbrouwers, Sylco S; Bouman, Yvonne H A; In 't Hout, Willem; Sergiou, Carmen; van der Stigchel, Stefan; Theeuwes, Jan

2017-05-01

Impairments in executive functioning give rise to reduced control of behavior and impulses, and are therefore a risk factor for violence and criminal behavior. However, the contribution of specific underlying processes remains unclear. A crucial element of executive functioning, and essential for cognitive control and goal-directed behavior, is visual attention. To further elucidate the importance of attentional functioning in the general offender population, we employed an attentional capture task to measure visual attention. We expected offenders to have impaired visual attention, as revealed by increased attentional capture, compared to healthy controls. When comparing the performance of 62 offenders to 69 healthy community controls, we found our hypothesis to be partly confirmed. Offenders were more accurate overall, more accurate in the absence of distracting information, suggesting superior attention. In the presence of distracting information offenders were significantly less accurate compared to when no distracting information was present. Together, these findings indicate that violent offenders may have superior attention, yet worse control over attention. As such, violent offenders may have trouble adjusting to unexpected, irrelevant stimuli, which may relate to failures in self-regulation and inhibitory control. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Behold: Silence and Attention in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewin, David

2014-01-01

Educators continually ask about the best means to engage students and how best to capture attention. These concerns often make the problematic assumption that students can directly govern their own attention. In order to address the role and limits of attention in education, some theorists have sought to recover the significance of silence or…

Do I Have My Attention? Speed of Processing Advantages for the Self-Face Are Not Driven by Automatic Attention Capture

PubMed Central

Keyes, Helen; Dlugokencka, Aleksandra

2014-01-01

We respond more quickly to our own face than to other faces, but there is debate over whether this is connected to attention-grabbing properties of the self-face. In two experiments, we investigate whether the self-face selectively captures attention, and the attentional conditions under which this might occur. In both experiments, we examined whether different types of face (self, friend, stranger) provide differential levels of distraction when processing self, friend and stranger names. In Experiment 1, an image of a distractor face appeared centrally – inside the focus of attention – behind a target name, with the faces either upright or inverted. In Experiment 2, distractor faces appeared peripherally – outside the focus of attention – in the left or right visual field, or bilaterally. In both experiments, self-name recognition was faster than other name recognition, suggesting a self-referential processing advantage. The presence of the self-face did not cause more distraction in the naming task compared to other types of face, either when presented inside (Experiment 1) or outside (Experiment 2) the focus of attention. Distractor faces had different effects across the two experiments: when presented inside the focus of attention (Experiment 1), self and friend images facilitated self and friend naming, respectively. This was not true for stranger stimuli, suggesting that faces must be robustly represented to facilitate name recognition. When presented outside the focus of attention (Experiment 2), no facilitation occurred. Instead, we report an interesting distraction effect caused by friend faces when processing strangers’ names. We interpret this as a “social importance” effect, whereby we may be tuned to pick out and pay attention to familiar friend faces in a crowd. We conclude that any speed of processing advantages observed in the self-face processing literature are not driven by automatic attention capture. PMID:25338170

Do I have my attention? Speed of processing advantages for the self-face are not driven by automatic attention capture.

PubMed

Keyes, Helen; Dlugokencka, Aleksandra

2014-01-01

We respond more quickly to our own face than to other faces, but there is debate over whether this is connected to attention-grabbing properties of the self-face. In two experiments, we investigate whether the self-face selectively captures attention, and the attentional conditions under which this might occur. In both experiments, we examined whether different types of face (self, friend, stranger) provide differential levels of distraction when processing self, friend and stranger names. In Experiment 1, an image of a distractor face appeared centrally - inside the focus of attention - behind a target name, with the faces either upright or inverted. In Experiment 2, distractor faces appeared peripherally - outside the focus of attention - in the left or right visual field, or bilaterally. In both experiments, self-name recognition was faster than other name recognition, suggesting a self-referential processing advantage. The presence of the self-face did not cause more distraction in the naming task compared to other types of face, either when presented inside (Experiment 1) or outside (Experiment 2) the focus of attention. Distractor faces had different effects across the two experiments: when presented inside the focus of attention (Experiment 1), self and friend images facilitated self and friend naming, respectively. This was not true for stranger stimuli, suggesting that faces must be robustly represented to facilitate name recognition. When presented outside the focus of attention (Experiment 2), no facilitation occurred. Instead, we report an interesting distraction effect caused by friend faces when processing strangers' names. We interpret this as a "social importance" effect, whereby we may be tuned to pick out and pay attention to familiar friend faces in a crowd. We conclude that any speed of processing advantages observed in the self-face processing literature are not driven by automatic attention capture.

Aging of Attentiveness in Border Collies and Other Pet Dog Breeds: The Protective Benefits of Lifelong Training

PubMed Central

Chapagain, Durga; Virányi, Zsófia; Wallis, Lisa J.; Huber, Ludwig; Serra, Jessica; Range, Friederike

2017-01-01

Aging of attentiveness affects cognitive functions like perception and working memory, which can seriously impact communication between dogs and humans, potentially hindering training and cooperation. Previous studies have revealed that aged laboratory beagles and pet Border collies (BC) show a decline in selective attention. However, much less is known about the aging of attentiveness in pet dogs in general rather than in specific breeds. Using 185 pet dogs (75 BC and 110 dogs of other breeds) divided into three age groups [late adulthood (6- < 8 year), senior (8- < 10 year) and geriatric (≥10 year)], we assessed the progress of aging of attentional capture, sustained and selective attention in older dogs in order to explore if prior results in BC are generalizable and to evaluate the influence of lifelong training on measures of attention. Each dog’s lifelong training score (ranging from 0 to 52) was calculated from a questionnaire filled in by the owners listing what kinds of training the dog participated in during its entire life. Dogs were tested in two tasks; the first, measuring attentional capture and sustained attention toward two stimuli (toy and human); and the second, measuring selective attention by means of clicker training for eye contact and finding food on the floor. In the first task, results revealed a significant effect of age but no effect of lifelong training on latency to orient to the stimuli. Duration of looking decreased with age and increased with lifelong training. In the second task, while lifelong training decreased the latency of dogs to form eye contact, aged dogs needed longer to find food. BC did not differ from other dogs in any measures of attention except latency to find food. In conclusion, aged dogs showed a decline in attentional capture and sustained attention demonstrating that these tests are sensitive to detect aging of attentiveness in older pet dogs. Importantly, selective attention remained unchanged with age and lifelong training seemed to delay or reduce the aging of attentiveness, further highlighting the importance of lifelong training in retaining general cognitive functions. PMID:28473766

Aging of Attentiveness in Border Collies and Other Pet Dog Breeds: The Protective Benefits of Lifelong Training.

PubMed

Chapagain, Durga; Virányi, Zsófia; Wallis, Lisa J; Huber, Ludwig; Serra, Jessica; Range, Friederike

2017-01-01

Aging of attentiveness affects cognitive functions like perception and working memory, which can seriously impact communication between dogs and humans, potentially hindering training and cooperation. Previous studies have revealed that aged laboratory beagles and pet Border collies (BC) show a decline in selective attention. However, much less is known about the aging of attentiveness in pet dogs in general rather than in specific breeds. Using 185 pet dogs (75 BC and 110 dogs of other breeds) divided into three age groups [late adulthood (6- < 8 year), senior (8- < 10 year) and geriatric (≥10 year)], we assessed the progress of aging of attentional capture, sustained and selective attention in older dogs in order to explore if prior results in BC are generalizable and to evaluate the influence of lifelong training on measures of attention. Each dog's lifelong training score (ranging from 0 to 52) was calculated from a questionnaire filled in by the owners listing what kinds of training the dog participated in during its entire life. Dogs were tested in two tasks; the first, measuring attentional capture and sustained attention toward two stimuli (toy and human); and the second, measuring selective attention by means of clicker training for eye contact and finding food on the floor. In the first task, results revealed a significant effect of age but no effect of lifelong training on latency to orient to the stimuli. Duration of looking decreased with age and increased with lifelong training. In the second task, while lifelong training decreased the latency of dogs to form eye contact, aged dogs needed longer to find food. BC did not differ from other dogs in any measures of attention except latency to find food. In conclusion, aged dogs showed a decline in attentional capture and sustained attention demonstrating that these tests are sensitive to detect aging of attentiveness in older pet dogs. Importantly, selective attention remained unchanged with age and lifelong training seemed to delay or reduce the aging of attentiveness, further highlighting the importance of lifelong training in retaining general cognitive functions.

Effect of fossil fuels on the parameters of CO2 capture.

PubMed

Nagy, Tibor; Mizsey, Peter

2013-08-06

The carbon dioxide capture is a more and more important issue in the design and operation of boilers and/or power stations because of increasing environmental considerations. Such processes, absorber desorber should be able to cope with flue gases from the use of different fossil primary energy sources, in order to guarantee a flexible, stable, and secure energy supply operation. The changing flue gases have significant influence on the optimal operation of the capture process, that is, where the required heating of the desorber is the minimal. Therefore special considerations are devoted to the proper design and control of such boiler and/or power stations equipped with CO2 capture process.

Cancer surveillance and information: balancing public health with privacy and confidentiality concerns (United States).

PubMed

Deapen, Dennis

2006-06-01

Rapid advances in informatics and communication technologies are greatly expanding the capacity for information capture and transportation. While these tools can be used for great good, they also offer new opportunities for those who seek to obtain and use information for improper purposes. While issues related to identity theft for financial gain garner the most attention, protection of privacy in public health endeavors such as cancer surveillance is also a significant concern. Some efforts to protect health-related information have had unintended consequences detrimental to health research and public health practice. Achieving a proper balance between measures to protect privacy and the ability to guard and improve public health requires careful consideration and development of appropriate policies, regulations and use of technology.

Telemetry data storage systems technology for the Space Station Freedom era

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dalton, John T.

1989-01-01

This paper examines the requirements and functions of the telemetry-data recording and storage systems, and the data-storage-system technology projected for the Space Station, with particular attention given to the Space Optical Disk Recorder, an on-board storage subsystem based on 160 gigabit erasable optical disk units each capable of operating at 300 M bits per second. Consideration is also given to storage systems for ground transport recording, which include systems for data capture, buffering, processing, and delivery on the ground. These can be categorized as the first in-first out storage, the fast random-access storage, and the slow access with staging. Based on projected mission manifests and data rates, the worst case requirements were developed for these three storage architecture functions. The results of the analysis are presented.

The Competitive Influences of Perceptual Load and Working Memory Guidance on Selective Attention.

PubMed

Tan, Jinfeng; Zhao, Yuanfang; Wang, Lijun; Tian, Xia; Cui, Yan; Yang, Qian; Pan, Weigang; Zhao, Xiaoyue; Chen, Antao

2015-01-01

The perceptual load theory in selective attention literature proposes that the interference from task-irrelevant distractor is eliminated when perceptual capacity is fully consumed by task-relevant information. However, the biased competition model suggests that the contents of working memory (WM) can guide attentional selection automatically, even when this guidance is detrimental to visual search. An intriguing but unsolved question is what will happen when selective attention is influenced by both perceptual load and WM guidance. To study this issue, behavioral performances and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded when participants were presented with a cue to either identify or hold in memory and had to perform a visual search task subsequently, under conditions of low or high perceptual load. Behavioural data showed that high perceptual load eliminated the attentional capture by WM. The ERP results revealed an obvious WM guidance effect in P1 component with invalid trials eliciting larger P1 than neutral trials, regardless of the level of perceptual load. The interaction between perceptual load and WM guidance was significant for the posterior N1 component. The memory guidance effect on N1 was eliminated by high perceptual load. Standardized Low Resolution Electrical Tomography Analysis (sLORETA) showed that the WM guidance effect and the perceptual load effect on attention can be localized into the occipital area and parietal lobe, respectively. Merely identifying the cue produced no effect on the P1 or N1 component. These results suggest that in selective attention, the information held in WM could capture attention at the early stage of visual processing in the occipital cortex. Interestingly, this initial capture of attention by WM could be modulated by the level of perceptual load and the parietal lobe mediates target selection at the discrimination stage.

The Competitive Influences of Perceptual Load and Working Memory Guidance on Selective Attention

PubMed Central

Tan, Jinfeng; Zhao, Yuanfang; Wang, Lijun; Tian, Xia; Cui, Yan; Yang, Qian; Pan, Weigang; Zhao, Xiaoyue; Chen, Antao

2015-01-01

The perceptual load theory in selective attention literature proposes that the interference from task-irrelevant distractor is eliminated when perceptual capacity is fully consumed by task-relevant information. However, the biased competition model suggests that the contents of working memory (WM) can guide attentional selection automatically, even when this guidance is detrimental to visual search. An intriguing but unsolved question is what will happen when selective attention is influenced by both perceptual load and WM guidance. To study this issue, behavioral performances and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded when participants were presented with a cue to either identify or hold in memory and had to perform a visual search task subsequently, under conditions of low or high perceptual load. Behavioural data showed that high perceptual load eliminated the attentional capture by WM. The ERP results revealed an obvious WM guidance effect in P1 component with invalid trials eliciting larger P1 than neutral trials, regardless of the level of perceptual load. The interaction between perceptual load and WM guidance was significant for the posterior N1 component. The memory guidance effect on N1 was eliminated by high perceptual load. Standardized Low Resolution Electrical Tomography Analysis (sLORETA) showed that the WM guidance effect and the perceptual load effect on attention can be localized into the occipital area and parietal lobe, respectively. Merely identifying the cue produced no effect on the P1 or N1 component. These results suggest that in selective attention, the information held in WM could capture attention at the early stage of visual processing in the occipital cortex. Interestingly, this initial capture of attention by WM could be modulated by the level of perceptual load and the parietal lobe mediates target selection at the discrimination stage. PMID:26098079

Adaptive attunement of selective covert attention to evolutionary-relevant emotional visual scenes.

PubMed

Fernández-Martín, Andrés; Gutiérrez-García, Aída; Capafons, Juan; Calvo, Manuel G

2017-05-01

We investigated selective attention to emotional scenes in peripheral vision, as a function of adaptive relevance of scene affective content for male and female observers. Pairs of emotional-neutral images appeared peripherally-with perceptual stimulus differences controlled-while viewers were fixating on a different stimulus in central vision. Early selective orienting was assessed by the probability of directing the first fixation towards either scene, and the time until first fixation. Emotional scenes selectively captured covert attention even when they were task-irrelevant, thus revealing involuntary, automatic processing. Sex of observers and specific emotional scene content (e.g., male-to-female-aggression, families and babies, etc.) interactively modulated covert attention, depending on adaptive priorities and goals for each sex, both for pleasant and unpleasant content. The attentional system exhibits domain-specific and sex-specific biases and attunements, probably rooted in evolutionary pressures to enhance reproductive and protective success. Emotional cues selectively capture covert attention based on their bio-social significance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automatic affective processing impairments in patients with deficit syndrome schizophrenia.

PubMed

Strauss, Gregory P; Allen, Daniel N; Duke, Lisa A; Ross, Sylvia A; Schwartz, Jason

2008-07-01

Affective impairments were examined in patients with and without deficit syndrome schizophrenia. Two Emotional Stroop tasks designed to measure automatic processing of emotional information were administered to deficit (n=15) and non-deficit syndrome (n=26) schizophrenia patients classified according to the Schedule for the Deficit Syndrome, and matched non-patient control subjects (n=22). In comparison to non-deficit patients and controls, deficit syndrome patients demonstrated a lack of attention bias for positive information, and an elevated attentional lingering effect for negative information. These findings suggest that positive information fails to automatically capture attention of deficit syndrome patients, and that when negative information captures attention, it produces difficulty in disengagement Attentional abnormalities were significantly correlated with negative symptoms, such that more severe symptoms were associated with less attention bias for positive emotion and a greater lingering effect for negative information. Results are generally consistent with a mood-congruent processing abnormality and suggest that impaired automatic processing may be core to diminished emotional experience symptoms exhibited in deficit syndrome patients.

Overlapping Parietal Activity in Memory and Perception: Evidence for the Attention to Memory Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cabeza, Roberto; Mazuz, Yonatan S.; Stokes, Jared; Kragel, James E.; Woldorff, Marty G.; Ciaramelli, Elisa; Olson, Ingrid R.; Moscovitch, Morris

2011-01-01

The specific role of different parietal regions to episodic retrieval is a topic of intense debate. According to the Attention to Memory (AtoM) model, dorsal parietal cortex (DPC) mediates top-down attention processes guided by retrieval goals, whereas ventral parietal cortex (VPC) mediates bottom-up attention processes captured by the retrieval…

A Unique Role of Endogenous Visual-Spatial Attention in Rapid Processing of Multiple Targets

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guzman-Martinez, Emmanuel; Grabowecky, Marcia; Palafox, German; Suzuki, Satoru

2011-01-01

Visual spatial attention can be exogenously captured by a salient stimulus or can be endogenously allocated by voluntary effort. Whether these two attention modes serve distinctive functions is debated, but for processing of single targets the literature suggests superiority of exogenous attention (it is faster acting and serves more functions).…

Your Divided Attention, Please! The Maintenance of Multiple Attentional Control Sets over Distinct Regions in Space

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adamo, Maha; Pun, Carson; Pratt, Jay; Ferber, Susanne

2008-01-01

When non-informative peripheral cues precede a target defined by a specific feature, cues that share the critical feature will capture attention while cues that do not will be effectively ignored. We tested whether different attentional control sets can be simultaneously maintained over distinct regions of space. Participants were instructed to…

Contingent capture and inhibition of return: a comparison of mechanisms.

PubMed

Prinzmetal, William; Taylor, Jordan A; Myers, Loretta Barry; Nguyen-Espino, Jacqueline

2011-09-01

We investigated the cause(s) of two effects associated with involuntary attention in the spatial cueing task: contingent capture and inhibition of return (IOR). Previously, we found that there were two mechanisms of involuntary attention in this task: (1) a (serial) search mechanism that predicts a larger cueing effect in reaction time with more display locations and (2) a decision (threshold) mechanism that predicts a smaller cueing effect with more display locations (Prinzmetal et al. 2010). In the present study, contingent capture and IOR had completely different patterns of results when we manipulated the number of display locations and the presence of distractors. Contingent capture was best described by a search model, whereas the inhibition of return was best described by a decision model. Furthermore, we fit a linear ballistic accumulator model to the results and IOR was accounted for by a change of threshold, whereas the results from contingent capture experiments could not be fit with a change of threshold and were better fit by a search model.

From Capture to Inhibition: How does Irrelevant Information Influence Visual Search? Evidence from a Spatial Cuing Paradigm

PubMed Central

Mertes, Christine; Wascher, Edmund; Schneider, Daniel

2016-01-01

Even though information is spatially and temporally irrelevant, it can influence the processing of subsequent information. The present study used a spatial cuing paradigm to investigate the origins of this persisting influence by means of event-related potentials (ERPs) of the EEG. An irrelevant color cue that was either contingent (color search) or non-contingent (shape search) on attentional sets was presented prior to a target array with different stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOA; 200, 400, 800 ms). Behavioral results indicated that color cues captured attention only when they shared target-defining properties. These same-location effects persisted over time but were pronounced when cue and target array were presented in close succession. N2 posterior contralateral (N2pc) showed that the color cue generally drew attention, but was strongest in the contingent condition. A subsequently emerging contralateral posterior positivity referred to the irrelevant cue (i.e., distractor positivity, Pd) was unaffected by the attentional set and therefore interpreted as an inhibitory process required to enable a re-direction of the attentional focus. Contralateral delay activity (CDA) was only observable in the contingent condition, indicating the transfer of spatial information into working memory and thus providing an explanation for the same-location effect for longer SOAs. Inhibition of this irrelevant information was reflected by a second contralateral positivity triggered through target presentation. The results suggest that distracting information is actively maintained when it resembles a sought-after object. However, two independent attentional processes are at work to compensate for attentional distraction: the timely inhibition of attentional capture and the active inhibition of mental representation of irrelevant information. PMID:27242493

The effect of pain on involuntary and voluntary capture of attention.

PubMed

Troche, S J; Houlihan, M E; Connolly, J F; Dick, B D; McGrath, P J; Finley, G A; Stroink, G

2015-03-01

There is converging evidence for the notion that pain affects a broad range of attentional domains. This study investigated the influence of pain on the involuntary capture of attention as indexed by the P3a component in the event-related potential derived from the electroencephalogram. Participants performed in an auditory oddball task in a pain-free and a pain condition during which they submerged a hand in cold water. Novel, infrequent and unexpected auditory stimuli were presented randomly in a series of frequent standard and infrequent target tones. P3a and P3b amplitudes were observed to novel, unexpected and target-related stimuli, respectively. Both electrophysiological components were characterized by reduced amplitudes in the pain compared with the pain-free condition. Hit rate and reaction time to target stimuli did not differ between the two conditions presumably because the experimental task was not difficult enough to exceed attentional capacities under pain conditions. These results indicate that voluntary attention serving the maintenance and control of ongoing information processing (reflected by the P3b amplitude) is impaired by pain. In addition, the involuntary capture of attention and orientation to novel, unexpected information (measured by the P3a) is also impaired by pain. Thus, neurophysiological measures examined in this study support the theoretical positions proposing that pain can reduce attentional processing capacity. These findings have potentially important implications at the theoretical level for our understanding of the interplay of pain and cognition, and at the therapeutic level for the clinical treatment of individuals experiencing ongoing pain. © 2014 European Pain Federation - EFIC®

Posterior parietal cortex and episodic encoding: insights from fMRI subsequent memory effects and dual-attention theory.

PubMed

Uncapher, Melina R; Wagner, Anthony D

2009-02-01

The formation of episodic memories--memories for life events--is affected by attention during event processing. A leading neurobiological model of attention posits two separate yet interacting systems that depend on distinct regions in lateral posterior parietal cortex (PPC). From this dual-attention perspective, dorsal PPC is thought to support the goal-directed allocation of attention, whereas ventral PPC is thought to support reflexive orienting to information that automatically captures attention. To advance understanding of how parietal mechanisms may impact event encoding, we review functional MRI studies that document the relationship between lateral PPC activation during encoding and subsequent memory performance (e.g., later remembering or forgetting). This review reveals that (a) encoding-related activity is frequently observed in human lateral PPC, (b) increased activation in dorsal PPC is associated with later memory success, and (c) increased activation in ventral PPC predominantly correlates with later memory failure. From a dual-attention perspective, these findings suggest that allocating goal-directed attention during event processing increases the probability that the event will be remembered later, whereas the capture of reflexive attention during event processing may have negative consequences for event encoding. The prevalence of encoding-related activation in parietal cortex suggests that neurobiological models of episodic memory should consider how parietal-mediated attentional mechanisms regulate encoding.

Collinearity Impairs Local Element Visual Search

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jingling, Li; Tseng, Chia-Huei

2013-01-01

In visual searches, stimuli following the law of good continuity attract attention to the global structure and receive attentional priority. Also, targets that have unique features are of high feature contrast and capture attention in visual search. We report on a salient global structure combined with a high orientation contrast to the…

Spatial Attention and Audiovisual Interactions in Apparent Motion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanabria, Daniel; Soto-Faraco, Salvador; Spence, Charles

2007-01-01

In this study, the authors combined the cross-modal dynamic capture task (involving the horizontal apparent movement of visual and auditory stimuli) with spatial cuing in the vertical dimension to investigate the role of spatial attention in cross-modal interactions during motion perception. Spatial attention was manipulated endogenously, either…

Video-Based Eye Tracking to Detect the Attention Shift: A Computer Classroom Context-Aware System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuo, Yung-Lung; Lee, Jiann-Shu; Hsieh, Min-Chai

2014-01-01

Eye and head movements evoked in response to obvious visual attention shifts. However, there has been little progress on the causes of absent-mindedness so far. The paper proposes an attention awareness system that captures the conditions regarding the interaction of eye gaze and head pose under various attentional switching in computer classroom.…

The role of fear and expectancies in capture of covert attention by spiders.

PubMed

Devue, Christel; Belopolsky, Artem V; Theeuwes, Jan

2011-08-01

Fear-related stimuli are often prioritized during visual selection but it remains unclear whether capture by salient objects is more likely to occur when individuals fear those objects. In this study, participants with high and low fear of spiders searched for a circle while on some trials a completely irrelevant fear-related (spider) or neutral distractor (butterfly/leaf) was presented simultaneously in the display. Our results show that when you fear spiders and you are not sure whether a spider is going to be present, then any salient distractor (i.e., a butterfly) grabs your attention, suggesting that mere expectation of a spider triggered compulsory monitoring of all irrelevant stimuli. However, neutral stimuli did not grab attention when high spider fearful people knew that a spider could not be present during a block of trials, treating the neutral stimuli just as the low spider fearful people do. Our results show that people that fear spiders inspect potential spider-containing locations in a compulsory fashion even though directing attention to this location is completely irrelevant for the task. Reduction of capture can only be accomplished when people that fear spiders do not expect a spider to be present. 2011 APA, all rights reserved

When spiders appear suddenly: spider-phobic patients are distracted by task-irrelevant spiders.

PubMed

Gerdes, Antje B M; Alpers, Georg W; Pauli, Paul

2008-02-01

Fear is thought to facilitate the detection of threatening stimuli. Few studies have examined the effects of task-irrelevant phobic cues in search tasks that do not involve semantic categorization. In a combined reaction time and eye-tracking experiment we investigated whether peripheral visual cues capture initial attention and distract from the execution of goal-directed eye movements. Twenty-one spider-phobic patients and 21 control participants were instructed to search for a color singleton while ignoring task-irrelevant abrupt-onset distractors which contained either a small picture of a spider (phobic), a flower (non-phobic, but similar to spiders in shape), a mushroom (non-phobic, and not similar to spiders in shape), or no picture. As expected, patients' reaction times were longer on trials with spider distractors. However, eye movements revealed that this was not due to attentional capture by spider distractors; patients more often fixated on all distractors with pictures, but their reaction times were delayed by longer fixation durations on spider distractors. These data do not support automatic capture of attention by phobic cues but suggest that phobic patients fail to disengage attention from spiders.

Attentional capture by emotional scenes across episodes in bipolar disorder: Evidence from a free-viewing task.

PubMed

García-Blanco, Ana; Salmerón, Ladislao; Perea, Manuel

2015-05-01

We examined whether the initial orienting, subsequent engagement, and overall allocation of attention are determined exogenously (i.e. by the affective valence of the stimulus) or endogenously (i.e. by the participant's mood) in the manic, depressive and euthymic episodes of bipolar disorder (BD). Participants were asked to compare the affective valence of two pictures (happy/threatening/neutral [emotional] vs. neutral [control]) while their eye movements were recorded in a free-viewing task. Results revealed that the initial orienting was exogenously captured by emotional images relative to control images. Importantly, engagement and overall allocation were endogenously captured by threatening images relative to neutral images in BD patients, regardless of their episode--this effect did not occur in a group of healthy controls. The threat-related bias in BD, which occurs even at the early stages of information processing (i.e. attentional engagement), may reflect a vulnerability marker. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Shielding cognition from nociception with working memory.

PubMed

Legrain, Valéry; Crombez, Geert; Plaghki, Léon; Mouraux, André

2013-01-01

Because pain often signals the occurrence of potential tissue damage, nociceptive stimuli have the capacity to capture attention and interfere with ongoing cognitive activities. Working memory is known to guide the orientation of attention by maintaining goal priorities active during the achievement of a task. This study investigated whether the cortical processing of nociceptive stimuli and their ability to capture attention are under the control of working memory. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants performed primary tasks on visual targets that required or did not require rehearsal in working memory (1-back vs 0-back conditions). The visual targets were shortly preceded by task-irrelevant tactile stimuli. Occasionally, in order to distract the participants, the tactile stimuli were replaced by novel nociceptive stimuli. In the 0-back conditions, task performance was disrupted by the occurrence of the nociceptive distracters, as reflected by the increased reaction times in trials with novel nociceptive distracters as compared to trials with standard tactile distracters. In the 1-back conditions, such a difference disappeared suggesting that attentional capture and task disruption induced by nociceptive distracters were suppressed by working memory, regardless of task demands. Most importantly, in the conditions involving working memory, the magnitude of nociceptive ERPs, including ERP components at early latency, were significantly reduced. This indicates that working memory is able to modulate the cortical processing of nociceptive input already at its earliest stages, and could explain why working memory reduces consequently ability of nociceptive stimuli to capture attention and disrupt performance of the primary task. It is concluded that protecting cognitive processing against pain interference is best guaranteed by keeping out of working memory pain-related information. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Influence of Interpretation Aids on Attentional Capture, Visual Processing, and Understanding of Front-of-Package Nutrition Labels.

PubMed

Antúnez, Lucía; Giménez, Ana; Maiche, Alejandro; Ares, Gastón

2015-01-01

To study the influence of 2 interpretational aids of front-of-package (FOP) nutrition labels (color code and text descriptors) on attentional capture and consumers' understanding of nutritional information. A full factorial design was used to assess the influence of color code and text descriptors using visual search and eye tracking. Ten trained assessors participated in the visual search study and 54 consumers completed the eye-tracking study. In the visual search study, assessors were asked to indicate whether there was a label high in fat within sets of mayonnaise labels with different FOP labels. In the eye-tracking study, assessors answered a set of questions about the nutritional content of labels. The researchers used logistic regression to evaluate the influence of interpretational aids of FOP nutrition labels on the percentage of correct answers. Analyses of variance were used to evaluate the influence of the studied variables on attentional measures and participants' response times. Response times were significantly higher for monochromatic FOP labels compared with color-coded ones (3,225 vs 964 ms; P < .001), which suggests that color codes increase attentional capture. The highest number and duration of fixations and visits were recorded on labels that did not include color codes or text descriptors (P < .05). The lowest percentage of incorrect answers was observed when the nutrient level was indicated using color code and text descriptors (P < .05). The combination of color codes and text descriptors seems to be the most effective alternative to increase attentional capture and understanding of nutritional information. Copyright © 2015 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The impact of temporal contingencies between cue and target onset on spatial attentional capture by subliminal onset cues.

PubMed

Schoeberl, Tobias; Ansorge, Ulrich

2018-05-15

Prior research suggested that attentional capture by subliminal abrupt onset cues is stimulus driven. In these studies, reacting was faster when a searched-for target appeared at the location of a preceding abrupt onset cue compared to when the same target appeared at a location away from the cue (cueing effect), although the earlier onset of the cue was subliminal, because it appeared as one out of three horizontally aligned placeholders with a lead time that was too short to be noticed by the participants. Because the cueing effects seemed to be independent of top-down search settings for target features, the effect was attributed to stimulus-driven attentional capture. However, prior studies did not investigate if participants experienced the cues as useful temporal warning signals and, therefore, attended to the cues in a top-down way. Here, we tested to which extent search settings based on temporal contingencies between cue and target onset could be responsible for spatial cueing effects. Cueing effects were replicated, and we showed that removing temporal contingencies between cue and target onset did not diminish the cueing effects (Experiments 1 and 2). Neither presenting the cues in the majority of trials after target onset (Experiment 1) nor presenting cue and target unrelated to one another (Experiment 2) led to a significant reduction of the spatial cueing effects. Results thus support the hypothesis that the subliminal cues captured attention in a stimulus-driven way.

Value-based attentional capture influences context-dependent decision-making

PubMed Central

Cha, Kexin; Rangsipat, Napat; Serences, John T.

2015-01-01

Normative theories posit that value-based decision-making is context independent. However, decisions between two high-value options can be suboptimally biased by the introduction of a third low-value option. This context-dependent modulation is consistent with the divisive normalization of the value of each stimulus by the total value of all stimuli. In addition, an independent line of research demonstrates that pairing a stimulus with a high-value outcome can lead to attentional capture that can mediate the efficiency of visual information processing. Here we tested the hypothesis that value-based attentional capture interacts with value-based normalization to influence the optimality of decision-making. We used a binary-choice paradigm in which observers selected between two targets and the color of each target indicated the magnitude of their reward potential. Observers also had to simultaneously ignore a task-irrelevant distractor rendered in a color that was previously associated with a specific reward magnitude. When the color of the task-irrelevant distractor was previously associated with a high reward, observers responded more slowly and less optimally. Moreover, as the learned value of the distractor increased, electrophysiological data revealed an attenuation of the lateralized N1 and N2Pc responses evoked by the relevant choice stimuli and an attenuation of the late positive deflection (LPD). Collectively, these behavioral and electrophysiological data suggest that value-based attentional capture and value-based normalization jointly mediate the influence of context on free-choice decision-making. PMID:25995350

Value-based attentional capture influences context-dependent decision-making.

PubMed

Itthipuripat, Sirawaj; Cha, Kexin; Rangsipat, Napat; Serences, John T

2015-07-01

Normative theories posit that value-based decision-making is context independent. However, decisions between two high-value options can be suboptimally biased by the introduction of a third low-value option. This context-dependent modulation is consistent with the divisive normalization of the value of each stimulus by the total value of all stimuli. In addition, an independent line of research demonstrates that pairing a stimulus with a high-value outcome can lead to attentional capture that can mediate the efficiency of visual information processing. Here we tested the hypothesis that value-based attentional capture interacts with value-based normalization to influence the optimality of decision-making. We used a binary-choice paradigm in which observers selected between two targets and the color of each target indicated the magnitude of their reward potential. Observers also had to simultaneously ignore a task-irrelevant distractor rendered in a color that was previously associated with a specific reward magnitude. When the color of the task-irrelevant distractor was previously associated with a high reward, observers responded more slowly and less optimally. Moreover, as the learned value of the distractor increased, electrophysiological data revealed an attenuation of the lateralized N1 and N2Pc responses evoked by the relevant choice stimuli and an attenuation of the late positive deflection (LPD). Collectively, these behavioral and electrophysiological data suggest that value-based attentional capture and value-based normalization jointly mediate the influence of context on free-choice decision-making. Copyright © 2015 the American Physiological Society.

Active chemisorption sites in functionalized ionic liquids for carbon capture.

PubMed

Cui, Guokai; Wang, Jianji; Zhang, Suojiang

2016-07-25

Development of novel technologies for the efficient and reversible capture of CO2 is highly desired. In the last decade, CO2 capture using ionic liquids has attracted intensive attention from both academia and industry, and has been recognized as a very promising technology. Recently, a new approach has been developed for highly efficient capture of CO2 by site-containing ionic liquids through chemical interaction. This perspective review focuses on the recent advances in the chemical absorption of CO2 using site-containing ionic liquids, such as amino-based ionic liquids, azolate ionic liquids, phenolate ionic liquids, dual-functionalized ionic liquids, pyridine-containing ionic liquids and so on. Other site-containing liquid absorbents such as amine-based solutions, switchable solvents, and functionalized ionic liquid-amine blends are also investigated. Strategies have been discussed for how to activate the existent reactive sites and develop novel reactive sites by physical and chemical methods to enhance CO2 absorption capacity and reduce absorption enthalpy. The carbon capture mechanisms of these site-containing liquid absorbents are also presented. Particular attention has been paid to the latest progress in CO2 capture in multiple-site interactions by amino-free anion-functionalized ionic liquids. In the last section, future directions and prospects for carbon capture by site-containing ionic liquids are outlined.

Subliminal spatial cues capture attention and strengthen between-object link.

PubMed

Chou, Wei-Lun; Yeh, Su-Ling

2011-12-01

According to the spreading hypothesis of object-based attention, a subliminal cue that can successfully capture attention to a location within an object should also cause attention to spread throughout the whole cued object and lead to the same-object advantage. Instead, we propose that a subliminal cue favors shifts of attention between objects and strengthens the between-object link, which is coded primarily within the dorsal pathway that governs the visual guidance of action. By adopting the two-rectangle method and using an effective subliminal cue to compare with the classic suprathreshold cue, we found a different result pattern with suprathreshold cues than with subliminal cues. The suprathreshold cue replicated the conventional location and object effects, whereas a subliminal cue led to a different-object advantage with a facilitatory location effect and a same-object advantage with an inhibitory location effect. These results support our consciousness-dependent shifting hypothesis but not the spreading hypothesis. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Feature-Based Memory-Driven Attentional Capture: Visual Working Memory Content Affects Visual Attention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olivers, Christian N. L.; Meijer, Frank; Theeuwes, Jan

2006-01-01

In 7 experiments, the authors explored whether visual attention (the ability to select relevant visual information) and visual working memory (the ability to retain relevant visual information) share the same content representations. The presence of singleton distractors interfered more strongly with a visual search task when it was accompanied by…

Learned Predictiveness Influences Rapid Attentional Capture: Evidence from the Dot Probe Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Le Pelley, Mike E.; Vadillo, Miguel; Luque, David

2013-01-01

Attentional theories of associative learning and categorization propose that learning about the predictiveness of a stimulus influences the amount of attention that is paid to that stimulus. Three experiments tested this idea by looking at the extent to which stimuli that had previously been experienced as predictive or nonpredictive in a…

[The role of sustained attention in shift-contingent change blindness].

PubMed

Nakashima, Ryoichi; Yokosawa, Kazuhiko

2015-02-01

Previous studies of change blindness have examined the effect of temporal factors (e.g., blank duration) on attention in change detection. This study examined the effect of spatial factors (i.e., whether the locations of original and changed objects are the same or different) on attention in change detection, using a shift-contingent change blindness task. We used a flicker paradigm in which the location of a to-be-judged target image was manipulated (shift, no-shift). In shift conditions, the image of an array of objects was spatially shifted so that all objects appeared in new locations; in no-shift conditions, all object images of an array appeared at the same location. The presence of visual stimuli (dots) in the blank display between the two images was.manipulated (dot, no-dot) under the assumption that abrupt onsets of these stimuli would capture attention. Results indicated that change detection performance was improved by exogenous attentional capture in the shift condition. Thus, we suggest that attention can play an important role in change detection during shift-contingent change blindness.

Feature-based memory-driven attentional capture: visual working memory content affects visual attention.

PubMed

Olivers, Christian N L; Meijer, Frank; Theeuwes, Jan

2006-10-01

In 7 experiments, the authors explored whether visual attention (the ability to select relevant visual information) and visual working memory (the ability to retain relevant visual information) share the same content representations. The presence of singleton distractors interfered more strongly with a visual search task when it was accompanied by an additional memory task. Singleton distractors interfered even more when they were identical or related to the object held in memory, but only when it was difficult to verbalize the memory content. Furthermore, this content-specific interaction occurred for features that were relevant to the memory task but not for irrelevant features of the same object or for once-remembered objects that could be forgotten. Finally, memory-related distractors attracted more eye movements but did not result in longer fixations. The results demonstrate memory-driven attentional capture on the basis of content-specific representations. Copyright 2006 APA.

Better safe than sorry: simplistic fear-relevant stimuli capture attention.

PubMed

Forbes, Sarah J; Purkis, Helena M; Lipp, Ottmar V

2011-08-01

It has been consistently demonstrated that fear-relevant images capture attention preferentially over fear-irrelevant images. Current theory suggests that this faster processing could be mediated by an evolved module that allows certain stimulus features to attract attention automatically, prior to the detailed processing of the image. The present research investigated whether simplified images of fear-relevant stimuli would produce interference with target detection in a visual search task. In Experiment 1, silhouettes and degraded silhouettes of fear-relevant animals produced more interference than did the fear-irrelevant images. Experiment 2, compared the effects of fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant distracters and confirmed that the interference produced by fear-relevant distracters was not an effect of novelty. Experiment 3 suggested that fear-relevant stimuli produced interference regardless of whether participants were instructed as to the content of the images. The three experiments indicate that even very simplistic images of fear-relevant animals can divert attention.

Automatic attention towards face or body as a function of mating motivation.

PubMed

Lu, Hui Jing; Chang, Lei

2012-03-22

Because women's faces and bodies carry different cues of reproductive value, men may attend to different perceptual cues as functions of their long-term versus short-term mating motivations. We tested this hypothesis in three experiments on 135 male and 132 female participants. When influenced by short-term rather than long-term mating motivations, men's attention was captured by (Study 1), was shifted to (Study 2), and was distracted by (Study 3) the waist/hip area rather than the face on photographs of attractive women. Similar effects were not found among the female participants in response to photographs of attractive men. These results support the evolutionary view that, similar to the attentional selectivity found in other domains of life, male perceptual attention has evolved to selectively capture and hold reproductive information about the opposite sex as a function of short-term versus long-term mating goals.

Pathways to Carbon-Negative Liquid Biofuels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woolf, D.; Lehmann, J.

2017-12-01

Many climate change mitigation scenarios assume that atmospheric carbon dioxide removal will be delivered at scale using bioenergy power generation with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). However, other pathways to negative emission technologies (NETs) in the energy sector are possible, but have received relatively little attention. Given that the costs, benefits and life-cycle emissions of technologies vary widely, more comprehensive analyses of the policy options for NETs are critical. This study provides a comparative assessment of the potential pathways to carbon-negative liquid biofuels. It is often assumed that that decarbonisation of the transport sector will include use of liquid biofuels, particularly for applications that are difficult to electrify such as aviation and maritime transport. However, given that biomass and land on which to grow it sustainably are limiting factors in the scaling up of both biofuels and NETs, these two strategies compete for shared factors of production. One way to circumvent this competition is carbon-negative biofuels. Because capture of exhaust CO2 in the transport sector is impractical, this will likely require carbon capture during biofuel production. Potential pathways include, for example, capture of CO2 from fermentation, or sequestration of biochar from biomass pyrolysis in soils, in combination with thermochemical or bio-catalytic conversion of syngas to alcohols or alkanes. Here we show that optimal pathway selection depends on specific resource constraints. As land availability becomes increasingly limiting if bioenergy is scaled up—particularly in consideration that abandoned degraded land is widely considered to be an important resource that does not compete with food fiber or habitat—then systems which enhance land productivity by increasing soil fertility using soil carbon sequestration become increasingly preferable compared to bioenergy systems that deplete or degrade the land resource on which they depend.

Water use at pulverized coal power plants with postcombustion carbon capture and storage.

PubMed

Zhai, Haibo; Rubin, Edward S; Versteeg, Peter L

2011-03-15

Coal-fired power plants account for nearly 50% of U.S. electricity supply and about a third of U.S. emissions of CO(2), the major greenhouse gas (GHG) associated with global climate change. Thermal power plants also account for 39% of all freshwater withdrawals in the U.S. To reduce GHG emissions from coal-fired plants, postcombustion carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems are receiving considerable attention. Current commercial amine-based capture systems require water for cooling and other operations that add to power plant water requirements. This paper characterizes and quantifies water use at coal-burning power plants with and without CCS and investigates key parameters that influence water consumption. Analytical models are presented to quantify water use for major unit operations. Case study results show that, for power plants with conventional wet cooling towers, approximately 80% of total plant water withdrawals and 86% of plant water consumption is for cooling. The addition of an amine-based CCS system would approximately double the consumptive water use of the plant. Replacing wet towers with air-cooled condensers for dry cooling would reduce plant water use by about 80% (without CCS) to about 40% (with CCS). However, the cooling system capital cost would approximately triple, although costs are highly dependent on site-specific characteristics. The potential for water use reductions with CCS is explored via sensitivity analyses of plant efficiency and other key design parameters that affect water resource management for the electric power industry.

Posterior Parietal Cortex and Episodic Encoding: Insights from fMRI Subsequent Memory Effects and Dual Attention Theory

PubMed Central

Uncapher, Melina; Wagner, Anthony D.

2010-01-01

The formation of episodic memories –– memories for life events –– is affected by attention during event processing. A leading neurobiological model of attention posits two separate yet interacting systems that depend on distinct regions in lateral posterior parietal cortex (PPC). From this dual-attention perspective, dorsal PPC is thought to support the goal-directed allocation of attention, whereas ventral PPC is thought to support reflexive orienting to information that automatically captures attention. To advance understanding of how parietal mechanisms may impact event encoding, we review functional MRI studies that document the relationship between lateral PPC activation during encoding and subsequent memory performance (e.g., later remembering or forgetting). This review reveals that (a) encoding-related activity is frequently observed in human lateral PPC, (b) increased activation in dorsal PPC is associated with later memory success, and (c) increased activation in ventral PPC predominantly correlates with later memory failure. From a dual-attention perspective, these findings suggest that allocating goal-directed attention during event processing increases the probability that the event will be remembered later, whereas the capture of reflexive attention during event processing may have negative consequences for event encoding. The prevalence of encoding-related activation in parietal cortex suggests that neurobiological models of episodic memory should consider how parietal-mediated attentional mechanisms regulate encoding. PMID:19028591

Controlling attentional priority by preventing changes in oculomotor programs: a job for the premotor cortex?

PubMed

Michael, G A; Kleitz, C; Sellal, F; Hirsch, E; Marescaux, C

2001-01-01

Abruptly presented items capture attention automatically so they constitute the first items to be examined [Yantis and Jonides, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1984;10:601; Jonids and Yantis, Perception and Psychophysics, 1988;43:346; Theeuwes, Perception and Psychophysics, 1992;51:599; Theeuwes, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1994;20:799]. This attentional priority can be controlled in a top-down manner by directing attention towards the locus of interest [Yantis and Johnson, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1990;16:812; Theeuwes. Perception and Psychophysics, 1991;49:83; Miller, Perception and Psychophysics, 1989;45:567; Folk et al., Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1992; 18:1030]. The premotor theory of attention [Rizzolatti et al., Neuropsychologia 1987;25:31; Rizzolatti et al., Attention and Performance XV, 1994, p. 231] assumes that the mechanism responsible for the attentional shifts is strictly linked to that responsible for eye movements, and several studies [Corbetta et al., Society of Neuroscience Abstracts 1997;23:122.12; Nobre et al., Brain 1997;120:515; Theeuwes et al., Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1999;25:1595] suggested that the premotor cortex plays a role in the control of attention. However, the nature of this involvement is still unclear. We have been asking a patient (RJ) with a damage of the right premotor cortex to decide whether a target had a discontinuity on its right or left side. The absolute location of the target was pre-cued. In Section 2, an interference was observed when a sudden onset occurred in the visual space, suggesting that RJ was not able to control attentional capture. The possibility to attribute this interference to an insufficient focalization of attention or a grouping effect were discarded by Sections 3 and 4, respectively. Section 5 revealed that this interference followed exclusively the onset occurring in the hemifield opposite the one containing the target (meridian effect [Rizzolatti et al., Neuropsychologia 1987;25:31]). The results suggest that the control of attentional capture may be achieved by keeping constant the parameters of the appropriate oculomotor program.

Action Planning Mediates Guidance of Visual Attention from Working Memory.

PubMed

Feldmann-Wüstefeld, Tobias; Schubö, Anna

2015-01-01

Visual search is impaired when a salient task-irrelevant stimulus is presented together with the target. Recent research has shown that this attentional capture effect is enhanced when the salient stimulus matches working memory (WM) content, arguing in favor of attention guidance from WM. Visual attention was also shown to be closely coupled with action planning. Preparing a movement renders action-relevant perceptual dimensions more salient and thus increases search efficiency for stimuli sharing that dimension. The present study aimed at revealing common underlying mechanisms for selective attention, WM, and action planning. Participants both prepared a specific movement (grasping or pointing) and memorized a color hue. Before the movement was executed towards an object of the memorized color, a visual search task (additional singleton) was performed. Results showed that distraction from target was more pronounced when the additional singleton had a memorized color. This WM-guided attention deployment was more pronounced when participants prepared a grasping movement. We argue that preparing a grasping movement mediates attention guidance from WM content by enhancing representations of memory content that matches the distractor shape (i.e., circles), thus encouraging attentional capture by circle distractors of the memorized color. We conclude that templates for visual search, action planning, and WM compete for resources and thus cause interferences.

Human olfaction: a constant state of change-blindness

PubMed Central

Sela, Lee

2010-01-01

Paradoxically, although humans have a superb sense of smell, they don’t trust their nose. Furthermore, although human odorant detection thresholds are very low, only unusually high odorant concentrations spontaneously shift our attention to olfaction. Here we suggest that this lack of olfactory awareness reflects the nature of olfactory attention that is shaped by the spatial and temporal envelopes of olfaction. Regarding the spatial envelope, selective attention is allocated in space. Humans direct an attentional spotlight within spatial coordinates in both vision and audition. Human olfactory spatial abilities are minimal. Thus, with no olfactory space, there is no arena for olfactory selective attention. Regarding the temporal envelope, whereas vision and audition consist of nearly continuous input, olfactory input is discreet, made of sniffs widely separated in time. If similar temporal breaks are artificially introduced to vision and audition, they induce “change blindness”, a loss of attentional capture that results in a lack of awareness to change. Whereas “change blindness” is an aberration of vision and audition, the long inter-sniff-interval renders “change anosmia” the norm in human olfaction. Therefore, attentional capture in olfaction is minimal, as is human olfactory awareness. All this, however, does not diminish the role of olfaction through sub-attentive mechanisms allowing subliminal smells a profound influence on human behavior and perception. PMID:20603708

Painful faces-induced attentional blink modulated by top–down and bottom–up mechanisms

PubMed Central

Zheng, Chun; Wang, Jin-Yan; Luo, Fei

2015-01-01

Pain-related stimuli can capture attention in an automatic (bottom–up) or intentional (top–down) fashion. Previous studies have examined attentional capture by pain-related information using spatial attention paradigms that involve mainly a bottom–up mechanism. In the current study, we investigated the pain information-induced attentional blink (AB) using a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task, and compared the effects of task-irrelevant and task-relevant pain distractors. Relationships between accuracy of target identification and individual traits (i.e., empathy and catastrophizing thinking about pain) were also examined. The results demonstrated that task-relevant painful faces had a significant pain information-induced AB effect, whereas task-irrelevant faces showed a near-significant trend of this effect, supporting the notion that pain-related stimuli can influence the temporal dynamics of attention. Furthermore, we found a significant negative correlation between response accuracy and pain catastrophizing score in task-relevant trials. These findings suggest that active scanning of environmental information related to pain produces greater deficits in cognition than does unintentional attention toward pain, which may represent the different ways in which healthy individuals and patients with chronic pain process pain-relevant information. These results may provide insight into the understanding of maladaptive attentional processing in patients with chronic pain. PMID:26082731

Action Planning Mediates Guidance of Visual Attention from Working Memory

PubMed Central

Schubö, Anna

2015-01-01

Visual search is impaired when a salient task-irrelevant stimulus is presented together with the target. Recent research has shown that this attentional capture effect is enhanced when the salient stimulus matches working memory (WM) content, arguing in favor of attention guidance from WM. Visual attention was also shown to be closely coupled with action planning. Preparing a movement renders action-relevant perceptual dimensions more salient and thus increases search efficiency for stimuli sharing that dimension. The present study aimed at revealing common underlying mechanisms for selective attention, WM, and action planning. Participants both prepared a specific movement (grasping or pointing) and memorized a color hue. Before the movement was executed towards an object of the memorized color, a visual search task (additional singleton) was performed. Results showed that distraction from target was more pronounced when the additional singleton had a memorized color. This WM-guided attention deployment was more pronounced when participants prepared a grasping movement. We argue that preparing a grasping movement mediates attention guidance from WM content by enhancing representations of memory content that matches the distractor shape (i.e., circles), thus encouraging attentional capture by circle distractors of the memorized color. We conclude that templates for visual search, action planning, and WM compete for resources and thus cause interferences. PMID:26171241

Wikis as Discussion Forums: Exploring Students' Contribution and Their Attention to Form

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nami, Fatemeh; Marandi, S. Susan

2014-01-01

The potential of wikis for learning has recently begun to capture the attention of English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) research. While students' collaboration, attention to form, and perceptions of wikis in document mode have been widely addressed in previous research, the educational value of wikis used in thread mode, as discussion…

Automatic Guidance of Visual Attention from Verbal Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soto, David; Humphreys, Glyn W.

2007-01-01

Previous studies have shown that visual attention can be captured by stimuli matching the contents of working memory (WM). Here, the authors assessed the nature of the representation that mediates the guidance of visual attention from WM. Observers were presented with either verbal or visual primes (to hold in memory, Experiment 1; to verbalize,…

Effects of Professional Development Training on Joint Attention Engagement in Low-Quality Childcare Centers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cain, David W.; Rudd, Loretta C.; Saxon, Terrill F.

2007-01-01

This study carries forward the exploration of joint attention engagement in children from 18 to 24 months of age enrolled in "low-quality" childcare centers. Childcare providers and children were videotaped to capture social interactions in the classroom including duration and bids for joint attention. One-half of 48 childcare providers…

Effect of task set-modulating attentional capture depends on the distractor cost in visual search: evidence from N2pc.

PubMed

Zhao, Dandan; Liang, Shengnan; Jin, Zhenlan; Li, Ling

2014-07-09

Previous studies have confirmed that attention can be modulated by the current task set while involuntarily captured by salient items. However, little is known on which factors the modulation of attentional capture is dependent on when the same stimuli with different task sets are presented. In the present study, participants conducted two visual search tasks with the same search arrays by varying target and distractor settings (color singleton as target, onset singleton as distractor, named as color task, and vice versa). Ipsilateral and contralateral color distractors resulted in two different relative saliences in two tasks, respectively. Both reaction times (RTs) and N2-posterior-contralateral (N2pc) results showed that there was no difference between ipsilateral and contralateral color distractors in the onset task. However, both RTs and the latency of N2pc showed a delay to the ipsilateral onset distractor compared with the contralateral onset distractor. Moreover, the N2pc observed under the contralateral distractor condition in the color task was reversed, and its amplitude was attenuated. On the basis of these results, we proposed a parameter called distractor cost (DC), computed by subtracting RTs under the contralateral distractor condition from the ipsilateral condition. The results suggest that an enhanced DC might be related to the modification of N2pc in searching for the color target. Taken together, these findings provide evidence that the effect of task set-modulating attentional capture in visual search is related to the DC.

Keeping pain in mind: a motivational account of attention to pain.

PubMed

Van Damme, Stefaan; Legrain, Valéry; Vogt, Julia; Crombez, Geert

2010-02-01

Attention is a key concept in many theories of pain perception. A clinically popular idea is that pain is more intense in persons who are hypervigilant for or bias their attention to pain information. So far, evidence for such bias in pain patients as compared to healthy persons is inconclusive. Furthermore, studies investigating the effects of distracting attention away from pain have shown contradictory results. In this review, we present a motivational perspective on attentional processing of pain that accounts for these inconclusive research findings. We argue that pain always has to be considered within a context of goal pursuit. From this perspective, two largely unexplored theoretical assumptions are introduced. First, when pain occurs during the pursuit of a certain goal, it may unintentionally capture attention although it is not relevant for the goal. Whether such unintentional attentional capture happens is not only dependent upon the characteristics of the pain but also on the characteristics of the focal goal. Second, attention to pain and pain-related information might be driven by a focal goal related to pain. Attentional processing of pain information will be particularly enhanced when the focal goal is related to pain management (e.g., attempting to gain control). Future research should systematically investigate the role of motivation and goal pursuit in the attentional processing of pain-related information. This motivational perspective offers a powerful framework to explain inter- and intra-individual differences in the deployment of attention to pain-related information.

Approaches to capturing the financial cost of family care-giving within a palliative care context: a systematic review.

PubMed

Gardiner, Clare; Brereton, Louise; Frey, Rosemary; Wilkinson-Meyers, Laura; Gott, Merryn

2016-09-01

The economic burden faced by family caregivers of people at the end of life is well recognised. Financial burden has a significant impact on the provision of family care-giving in the community setting, but has seen limited research attention. A systematic review with realist review synthesis and thematic analysis was undertaken to identify literature relating to the financial costs and impact of family care-giving at the end of life. This paper reports findings relating to previously developed approaches which capture the financial costs and implications of caring for family members receiving palliative/end-of-life care. Seven electronic databases were searched from inception to April 2012, for original research studies relating to the financial impact of care-giving at the end of life. Studies were independently screened to identify those which met the study inclusion criteria, and the methodological quality of included studies was appraised using realist review criteria of relevance and rigour. A descriptive thematic approach was used to synthesise data. Twelve articles met the inclusion criteria for the review. Various approaches to capturing data on the financial costs of care-giving at the end of life were noted; however, no single tool was identified with the sole purpose of exploring these costs. The majority of approaches used structured questionnaires and were administered by personal interview, with most studies using longitudinal designs. Calculation of costs was most often based on recall by patients and family caregivers, in some studies combined with objective measures of resource use. While the studies in this review provide useful data on approaches to capturing costs of care-giving, more work is needed to develop methods which accurately and sensitively capture the financial costs of caring at the end of life. Methodological considerations include study design and method of administration, contextual and cultural relevance, and accuracy of cost estimates. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

From classic to current: a look back on attention research in the American Journal of Psychology.

PubMed

Mounts, Jeffrey R W

2012-01-01

This review examines attention research appearing in The American Journal of Psychology over the journal's rich 125-year history. In particular, the review examines studies focused on selective attention's role in modulating the influence of distraction and the methods used to capture the nature of selective attention. Special attention is given to classic articles by Treisman (1964a, 1964b), Neisser (1963), and Eriksen and Rohrbaugh (1970), whose methods and results are examined in detail in light of current theory and research in selective attention.

Stability of a slotted ALOHA system with capture effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Onozato, Yoshikuni; Liu, Jin; Noguchi, Shoichi

1989-02-01

The stability of a slotted ALOHA system with capture effect is investigated under a general communication environment where terminals are divided into two groups (low-power and high-power) and the capture effect is modeled by capture probabilities. An approximate analysis is developed using catastrophe theory, in which the effects of system and user parameters on the stability are characterized by the cusp catastrophe. Particular attention is given to the low-power group, since it must bear the strain under the capture effect. The stability conditions of the two groups are given explicitly by bifurcation sets.

Dissociating the capture of attention from saccade activation by subliminal abrupt onsets.

PubMed

Schoeberl, Tobias; Ansorge, Ulrich

2017-10-01

Attentional capture and effects on saccade metrics by subliminal abrupt onset cues have been studied with peripheral cues at one out of several (two to four) display locations, swiftly followed by additional onsets at the other display locations. The lead time of the cue was too short to be seen. Here, we were interested in whether such subliminal onset cues influenced saccades primarily by way of attention or by way of direct saccade activation. In separate blocks, participants made speeded pro-saccades towards a black target or anti-saccades away from the target. Prior to the targets, an abrupt onset cue was presented either at the same side as the target (valid condition) or at the opposite side (invalid condition). If cues influenced performance by way of attentional capture, we expected facilitation of target processing in valid compared to invalid conditions (cueing effect) in the pro- as well as in the anti-saccade task. If the cues activated saccades in their direction, we expected the cueing effect to drop in the anti-saccade task compared to the pro-saccade task because in the anti-saccade task the invalid cue would activate the finally required response, whereas the valid cue would activate the alternative response, leading to interference. Results were in line with the former of these possibilities suggesting that subliminal abrupt onsets influenced saccades by way of attention with no or little direct activation of saccades.

Correction to: Dissociating the capture of attention from saccade activation by subliminal abrupt onsets.

PubMed

Schoeberl, Tobias; Ansorge, Ulrich

2018-01-01

Attentional capture and effects on saccade metrics by subliminal abrupt onset cues have been studied with peripheral cues at one out of several (two to four) display locations, swiftly followed by additional onsets at the other display locations. The lead time of the cue was too short to be seen. Here, we were interested in whether such subliminal onset cues influenced saccades primarily by way of attention or by way of direct saccade activation. In separate blocks, participants made speeded pro-saccades towards a black target or anti-saccades away from the target. Prior to the targets, an abrupt onset cue was presented either at the same side as the target (valid condition) or at the opposite side (invalid condition). If cues influenced performance by way of attentional capture, we expected facilitation of target processing in valid compared to invalid conditions (cueing effect) in the pro- as well as in the anti-saccade task. If the cues activated saccades in their direction, we expected the cueing effect to drop in the anti-saccade task compared to the pro-saccade task because in the anti-saccade task the invalid cue would activate the finally required response, whereas the valid cue would activate the alternative response, leading to interference. Results were in line with the former of these possibilities suggesting that subliminal abrupt onsets influenced saccades by way of attention with no or little direct activation of saccades.

Viewing social scenes: a visual scan-path study comparing fragile X syndrome and Williams syndrome.

PubMed

Williams, Tracey A; Porter, Melanie A; Langdon, Robyn

2013-08-01

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) and Williams syndrome (WS) are both genetic disorders which present with similar cognitive-behavioral problems, but distinct social phenotypes. Despite these social differences both syndromes display poor social relations which may result from abnormal social processing. This study aimed to manipulate the location of socially salient information within scenes to investigate the visual attentional mechanisms of: capture, disengagement, and/or general engagement. Findings revealed that individuals with FXS avoid social information presented centrally, at least initially. The WS findings, on the other hand, provided some evidence that difficulties with attentional disengagement, rather than attentional capture, may play a role in the WS social phenotype. These findings are discussed in relation to the distinct social phenotypes of these two disorders.

Eye movement assessment of selective attentional capture by emotional pictures.

PubMed

Nummenmaa, Lauri; Hyönä, Jukka; Calvo, Manuel G

2006-05-01

The eye-tracking method was used to assess attentional orienting to and engagement on emotional visual scenes. In Experiment 1, unpleasant, neutral, or pleasant target pictures were presented simultaneously with neutral control pictures in peripheral vision under instruction to compare pleasantness of the pictures. The probability of first fixating an emotional picture, and the frequency of subsequent fixations, were greater than those for neutral pictures. In Experiment 2, participants were instructed to avoid looking at the emotional pictures, but these were still more likely to be fixated first and gazed longer during the first-pass viewing than neutral pictures. Low-level visual features cannot explain the results. It is concluded that overt visual attention is captured by both unpleasant and pleasant emotional content. 2006 APA, all rights reserved

Lifespan development of attentiveness in domestic dogs: drawing parallels with humans

PubMed Central

Wallis, Lisa J.; Range, Friederike; Müller, Corsin A.; Serisier, Samuel; Huber, Ludwig; Zsó, Virányi

2014-01-01

Attention is pivotal to consciousness, perception, cognition, and working memory in all mammals, and therefore changes in attention over the lifespan are likely to influence development and aging of all of these functions. Due to their evolutionary and developmental history, the dog is being recognized as an important species for modeling human healthspan, aging and associated diseases. In this study, we investigated the normal lifespan development of attentiveness of pet dogs in naturalistic situations, and compared the resulting cross-sectional developmental trajectories with data from previous studies in humans. We tested a sample of 145 Border collies (6 months to 14 years) with humans and objects or food as attention attractors, in order to assess their attentional capture, sustained and selective attention, and sensorimotor abilities. Our results reveal differences in task relevance in sustained attentional performance when watching a human or a moving object, which may be explained by life-long learning processes involving such stimuli. During task switching we found that dogs’ selective attention and sensorimotor abilities showed differences between age groups, with performance peaking at middle age. Dogs’ sensorimotor abilities showed a quadratic distribution with age and were correlated with selective attention performance. Our results support the hypothesis that the development and senescence of sensorimotor and attentional control may be fundamentally interrelated. Additionally, attentional capture, sustained attention, and sensorimotor control developmental trajectories paralleled those found in humans. Given that the development of attention is similar across humans and dogs, we propose that the same regulatory mechanisms are likely to be present in both species. Finally, this cross-sectional study provides the first description of age group changes in attention over the lifespan of pet dogs. PMID:24570668

Infants' visual sustained attention is higher during joint play than solo play: is this due to increased endogenous attention control or exogenous stimulus capture?

PubMed

Wass, Sam V; Clackson, Kaili; Georgieva, Stanimira D; Brightman, Laura; Nutbrown, Rebecca; Leong, Victoria

2018-04-06

Previous research has suggested that when a social partner, such as a parent, pays attention to an object, this increases the attention that infants pay to that object during spontaneous, naturalistic play. There are two contrasting reasons why this might be: first, social context may influence increases in infants' endogenous (voluntary) attention control; second, social settings may offer increased opportunities for exogenous attentional capture. To differentiate these possibilities, we compared 12-month-old infants' naturalistic attention patterns in two settings: Solo Play and Joint Play with a social partner (the parent). Consistent with previous research, we found that infants' look durations toward play objects were longer during Joint Play, and that moments of inattentiveness were fewer, and shorter. Follow-up analyses, conducted to differentiate the two above-proposed hypotheses, were more consistent with the latter hypothesis. We found that infants' rate of change of attentiveness was faster during Joint Play than Solo Play, suggesting that internal attention factors, such as attentional inertia, may influence looking behaviour less during Joint Play. We also found that adults' attention forwards-predicted infants' subsequent attention more than vice versa, suggesting that adults' behaviour may drive infants' behaviour. Finally, we found that mutual gaze did not directly facilitate infant attentiveness. Overall, our results suggest that infants spend more time attending to objects during Joint Play than Solo Play, but that these differences are more likely attributable to increased exogenous attentional scaffolding from the parent during social play, rather than to increased endogenous attention control from the infant. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Concentration and Civilisation: Producing the Attentive Child in the Age of Enlightenment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sobe, Noah W.

2010-01-01

The problem of how best to capture, direct, and enhance children's abilities to pay attention has been a central feature of educational thought and practices over a long duration. And, while having students pay attention in class has been a concern of teachers across the ages, beginning in the Enlightenment we find a significant shift in…

Do the Contents of Working Memory Capture Attention? Yes, but Cognitive Control Matters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Han, Suk Won; Kim, Min-Shik

2009-01-01

There has been a controversy on whether working memory can guide attentional selection. Some researchers have reported that the contents of working memory guide attention automatically in visual search (D. Soto, D. Heinke, G. W. Humphreys, & M. J. Blanco, 2005). On the other hand, G.F. Woodman and S. J. Luck (2007) reported that they could not…

AD/HD and the Capture of Attention by Briefly Exposed Delay-Related Cues: Evidence from a Conditioning Paradigm

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sonuga-Barke, Edmund J. S.; De Houwer, Jan; De Ruiter, Karen; Ajzenstzen, Michal; Holland, Sarah

2004-01-01

Background: The selective attention of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) to briefly exposed delay-related cues was examined in two experiments using a dot-probe conditioning paradigm. Method: Colour cues were paired with negatively (i.e., imposition of delay) and positively valenced cues (i.e., escape from or avoidance…

Attentional Allocation of Autism Spectrum Disorder Individuals: Searching for a Face-in-the-Crowd

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, David J.; Reidy, John; Heavey, Lisa

2016-01-01

A study is reported which tests the proposition that faces capture the attention of those with autism spectrum disorders less than a typical population. A visual search task based on the Face-in-the-Crowd paradigm was used to examine the attentional allocation of autism spectrum disorder adults for faces. Participants were required to search for…

The color red attracts attention in an emotional context. An ERP study.

PubMed

Kuniecki, Michał; Pilarczyk, Joanna; Wichary, Szymon

2015-01-01

The color red is known to influence psychological functioning, having both negative (e.g., blood, fire, danger), and positive (e.g., sex, food) connotations. The aim of our study was to assess the attentional capture by red-colored images, and to explore the modulatory role of the emotional valence in this process, as postulated by Elliot and Maier (2012) color-in-context theory. Participants completed a dot-probe task with each cue comprising two images of equal valence and arousal, one containing a prominent red object and the other an object of different coloration. Reaction times were measured, as well as the event-related lateralizations of the EEG. Modulation of the lateralized components revealed that the color red captured and later held the attention in both positive and negative conditions, but not in a neutral condition. An overt motor response to the target stimulus was affected mainly by attention lingering over the visual field where the red cue had been flashed. However, a weak influence of the valence could still be detected in reaction times. Therefore, red seems to guide attention, specifically in emotionally-valenced circumstances, indicating that an emotional context can alter color's impact both on attention and motor behavior.

Using response time distributions to examine top-down influences on attentional capture.

PubMed

Burnham, Bryan R

2013-02-01

Three experiments examined contingent attentional capture, which is the finding that cuing effects are larger when cues are perceptually similar to a target than when they are dissimilar to the target. This study also analyzed response times (RTs) in terms of the underlying distributions for valid cues and invalid cues. Specifically, an ex-Gaussian analysis and a vincentile analysis examined the influence of top-down attentional control settings on the shift and skew of RT distributions and how the shift and the skew contributed to the cuing effects in the mean RTs. The results showed that cue/target similarity influenced the size of cuing effects. The RT distribution analyses showed that the cuing effects reflected only a shifting effect, not a skewing effect, in the RT distribution between valid cues and invalid cues. That is, top-down attentional control moderated the cuing effects in the mean RTs through distribution shifting, not distribution skewing. The results support the contingent orienting hypothesis (Folk, Remington, & Johnston, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 18, 1030-1044, 1992) over the attentional disengagement account (Theeuwes, Atchley, & Kramer, 2000) as an explanation for when top-down attentional settings influence the selection of salient stimuli.

Developmental Trajectories of Attention in Typically Developing Chinese Children: A Four-Wave Longitudinal Study.

PubMed

Yan, Chao; Zhou, Hui; Wei, Wei; Wang, Yi-Ji; Cui, Lixian; Chan, Raymond C K; Deng, Ci-Ping

2018-06-22

We conducted a 4-year longitudinal study to investigate trajectories of attention in a sample of 145 Chinese children. The Test of Everyday Attention was administered and latent growth modeling was used to capture developmental trajectories. We found that children's selective attention showed a linear increase, whereas attentional control and sustained attention increased rapidly then slowed down over 4 years. There was no significant correlation between the slopes of growth model for any subsystems. Girls showed higher initial levels of selective attention than boys, but no difference in growth rate. These findings support different developmental patterns in the attention network systems.

Working memory as internal attention: toward an integrative account of internal and external selection processes.

PubMed

Kiyonaga, Anastasia; Egner, Tobias

2013-04-01

Working memory (WM) and attention have been studied as separate cognitive constructs, although it has long been acknowledged that attention plays an important role in controlling the activation, maintenance, and manipulation of representations in WM. WM has, conversely, been thought of as a means of maintaining representations to voluntarily guide perceptual selective attention. It has more recently been observed, however, that the contents of WM can capture visual attention, even when such internally maintained representations are irrelevant, and often disruptive, to the immediate external task. Thus, the precise relationship between WM and attention remains unclear, but it appears that they may bidirectionally impact one another, whether or not internal representations are consistent with the external perceptual goals. This reciprocal relationship seems, further, to be constrained by limited cognitive resources to handle demands in either maintenance or selection. We propose here that the close relationship between WM and attention may be best described as a give-and-take interdependence between attention directed toward either actively maintained internal representations (traditionally considered WM) or external perceptual stimuli (traditionally considered selective attention), underpinned by their shared reliance on a common cognitive resource. Put simply, we argue that WM and attention should no longer be considered as separate systems or concepts, but as competing and influencing one another because they rely on the same limited resource. This framework can offer an explanation for the capture of visual attention by irrelevant WM contents, as well as a straightforward account of the underspecified relationship between WM and attention.

Working Memory as Internal Attention: Toward an Integrative Account of Internal and External Selection Processes

PubMed Central

Kiyonaga, Anastasia; Egner, Tobias

2012-01-01

Working memory (WM) and attention have been studied as separate cognitive constructs, although it has long been acknowledged that attention plays an important role in controlling the activation, maintenance, and manipulation of representations in WM. WM has, conversely, been thought of as a means of maintaining representations to voluntarily guide perceptual selective attention. It has more recently been observed, however, that the contents of WM can capture visual attention, even when such internally maintained representations are irrelevant, and often disruptive, to the immediate external task. Thus the precise relationship between WM and attention remains unclear, but it appears that they may bi-directionally impact one another, whether or not internal representations are consistent with external perceptual goals. This reciprocal relationship seems, further, to be constrained by limited cognitive resources to handle demands in either maintenance or selection. We propose here that the close relationship between WM and attention may be best described as a give-and-take interdependence between attention directed toward actively maintained internal representations (traditionally considered WM) versus external perceptual stimuli (traditionally considered selective attention), underpinned by their shared reliance on a common cognitive resource. Put simply, we argue that WM and attention should no longer be considered as separate systems or concepts, but as competing and impacting one another because they rely on the same limited resource. This framework can offer an explanation for the capture of visual attention by irrelevant WM contents, as well as a straightforward account of the underspecified relationship between WM and attention. PMID:23233157

Cholinergic Enhancement Increases the Effects of Voluntary Attention but Does Not Affect Involuntary Attention

PubMed Central

Rokem, Ariel; Landau, Ayelet N; Garg, Dave; Prinzmetal, William; Silver, Michael A

2010-01-01

Voluntary visual spatial attention can be allocated in a goal-oriented manner to locations containing behaviorally relevant information. In contrast, involuntary attention is automatically captured by salient events. Allocation of attention is known to be modulated by release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) in cerebral cortex. We used an anti-predictive spatial cueing task to assess the effects of pharmacological enhancement of cholinergic transmission on behavioral measures of voluntary and involuntary attention in healthy human participants. Each trial began with the presentation of a cue in a peripheral location. In 80% of the trials, a target then appeared in a location opposite the cue. In the remaining 20% of trials, the target appeared in the cue location. For trials with short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between cue and target, involuntary capture of attention resulted in shorter reaction times (RTs) to targets presented at the cue location. For long SOA trials, allocation of voluntary attention resulted in the opposite pattern: RTs were shorter when the target appeared in the expected (opposite) location. Each subject participated in two sessions: one in which the cholinesterase inhibitor donepezil was administered to increase synaptic ACh levels and one in which placebo was administered. Donepezil selectively improved performance (reduced RT) for long SOA trials in which targets appeared in the expected location. Thus, cholinergic enhancement augments the benefits of voluntary attention but does not affect involuntary attention, suggesting that they rely on different neurochemical mechanisms. PMID:20811340

The dynamic allocation of attention to emotion: simultaneous and independent evidence from the late positive potential and steady state visual evoked potentials.

PubMed

Hajcak, Greg; MacNamara, Annmarie; Foti, Dan; Ferri, Jamie; Keil, Andreas

2013-03-01

Emotional stimuli capture and hold attention without explicit instruction. The late positive potential (LPP) component of the event related potential can be used to track motivated attention toward emotional stimuli, and is larger for emotional compared to neutral pictures. In the frequency domain, the steady state visual evoked potential (ssVEP) has also been used to track attention to stimuli flickering at a particular frequency. Like the LPP, the ssVEP is also larger for emotional compared to neutral pictures. Prior work suggests that both the LPP and ssVEP are sensitive to "top-down" manipulations of attention, however the LPP and ssVEP have not previously been examined using the same attentional manipulation in the same participants. In the present study, LPP and ssVEP amplitudes were simultaneously elicited by unpleasant and neutral pictures. Partway through picture presentation, participants' attention was directed toward an arousing or non-arousing region of unpleasant pictures. In line with prior work, the LPP was reduced when attention was directed toward non-arousing compared to arousing regions of unpleasant pictures; similar results were observed for the ssVEP. Thus, both electrocortical measures index affective salience and are sensitive to directed (here: spatial) attention. Variation in the LPP and ssVEP was unrelated, suggesting that these measures are not redundant with each other and may capture different neurophysiological aspects of affective stimulus processing and attention. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Reward history but not search history explains value-driven attentional capture.

PubMed

Marchner, Janina R; Preuschhof, Claudia

2018-04-19

In past years, an extensive amount of research has focused on how past experiences guide future attention. Humans automatically attend to stimuli previously associated with reward and stimuli that have been experienced during visual search, even when it is disadvantageous in present situations. Recently, the relationship between "reward history" and "search history" has been discussed critically. We review results from research on value-driven attentional capture (VDAC) with a focus on these two experience-based attentional selection processes and their distinction. To clarify inconsistencies, we examined VDAC within a design that allows a direct comparison with other mechanisms of attentional selection. Eighty-four healthy adults were trained to incidentally associate colors with reward (10 cents, 2 cents) or with no reward. In a subsequent visual search task, distraction by reward-associated and unrewarded stimuli was contrasted. In the training phase, reward signals facilitated performance. When these value-signaling stimuli appeared as distractors in the test phase, they continuously shaped attentional selection, despite their task irrelevance. Our findings clearly cannot be attributed to a history of target search. We conclude that once an association is established, value signals guide attention automatically in new situations, which can be beneficial or not, depending on the congruency with current goals.

Automatic capture of attention by conceptually generated working memory templates.

PubMed

Sun, Sol Z; Shen, Jenny; Shaw, Mark; Cant, Jonathan S; Ferber, Susanne

2015-08-01

Many theories of attention propose that the contents of working memory (WM) can act as an attentional template, which biases processing in favor of perceptually similar inputs. While support has been found for this claim, it is unclear how attentional templates are generated when searching real-world environments. We hypothesized that in naturalistic settings, attentional templates are commonly generated from conceptual knowledge, an idea consistent with sensorimotor models of knowledge representation. Participants performed a visual search task in the delay period of a WM task, where the item in memory was either a colored disk or a word associated with a color concept (e.g., "Rose," associated with red). During search, we manipulated whether a singleton distractor in the array matched the contents of WM. Overall, we found that search times were impaired in the presence of a memory-matching distractor. Furthermore, the degree of impairment did not differ based on the contents of WM. Put differently, regardless of whether participants were maintaining a perceptually colored disk identical to the singleton distractor, or whether they were simply maintaining a word associated with the color of the distractor, the magnitude of attentional capture was the same. Our results suggest that attentional templates can be generated from conceptual knowledge, in the physical absence of the visual feature.

A fitting empirical potential for NiTi alloy and its application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ren, Guowu; Tang, Tiegang; Sehitoglu, Huseyin

Due to its superelastic behavior, NiTi shape memory alloy receives considerable attentions over a wide range of industrial and commercial applications. Limited to its complex structural transformation and multiple variants, semiempirical potentials for performing large-scale molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the atomistic mechanical process, are very few. In this work, we construct a new interatomic potential for the NiTi alloy by fitting to experimental or ab initio data. The fitting potential correctly predicts the lattice parameter, structural stability, equation of state for cubic B2(austenite) and monoclinic B19'(martensite) phases. In particular the elastic properties(three elastic constants for B2 and thirteen ones for B19') are in satisfactory agreement with the experiments or ab initio calculations. Furthermore, we apply this potential to conduct the molecular dynamics simulations of the mechanical behavior for NiTi alloy and the results capture its reversible transformation.

Lessons from HeLa Cells: The Ethics and Policy of Biospecimens.

PubMed

Beskow, Laura M

2016-08-31

Human biospecimens have played a crucial role in scientific and medical advances. Although the ethical and policy issues associated with biospecimen research have long been the subject of scholarly debate, the story of Henrietta Lacks, her family, and the creation of HeLa cells captured the attention of a much broader audience. The story has been a catalyst for policy change, including major regulatory changes proposed in the United States surrounding informed consent. These proposals are premised in part on public opinion data, necessitating a closer look at what such data tell us. The development of biospecimen policy should be informed by many considerations-one of which is public input, robustly gathered, on acceptable approaches that optimize shared interests, including access for all to the benefits of research. There is a need for consent approaches that are guided by realistic aspirations and a balanced view of autonomy within an expanded ethical framework.

Goal-based dictator game

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaibidi, Nerda Zura; Ibrahim, Adyda; Abidin, Norhaslinda Zainal

2014-12-01

A considerable number of studies have been conducted to study fairness issues using two-player game. Dictator Game is one of the two-player games that receive much attention. In this paper, we develop an evolutionary approach to the Dictator Game by using Goal programming to build a model of human decision-making for cooperation. The model is formulated based on the theories of cognitive neuroscience that is capable in capturing a more realistic fairness concerns between players in the games. We show that fairness will evolve by taking into account players' aspirations and preferences explicitly in terms of profit and fairness concerns. The model is then simulated to investigate any possible effective strategy for people in economics to deal with fairness coalition. Parallels are drawn between the approach and concepts of human decision making from the field of cognitive neuroscience and psychology. The proposed model is also able to help decision makers to plan or enhance the effective strategies for business purposes.

Supersonic Post-Combustion Inertial CO 2 Extraction System Final Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Balepin, Vladimir

This report summarizes the effort carried out under NETL contract DE- FE0013122 from 1 October 2013 to 31 March 2017. As described in this document, technical challenges realized during the performance of this project resulted in completion of only the first two of three planned budget periods. Despite this outcome, substantial progress was made toward understanding and maturing the CO 2 capture technology under consideration and considerable future promise remains for applications requiring lower CO 2 capture and/or lower CO 2.

High-Throughput Sequencing of 16S rRNA Gene Amplicons: Effects of Extraction Procedure, Primer Length and Annealing Temperature

PubMed Central

Sergeant, Martin J.; Constantinidou, Chrystala; Cogan, Tristan; Penn, Charles W.; Pallen, Mark J.

2012-01-01

The analysis of 16S-rDNA sequences to assess the bacterial community composition of a sample is a widely used technique that has increased with the advent of high throughput sequencing. Although considerable effort has been devoted to identifying the most informative region of the 16S gene and the optimal informatics procedures to process the data, little attention has been paid to the PCR step, in particular annealing temperature and primer length. To address this, amplicons derived from 16S-rDNA were generated from chicken caecal content DNA using different annealing temperatures, primers and different DNA extraction procedures. The amplicons were pyrosequenced to determine the optimal protocols for capture of maximum bacterial diversity from a chicken caecal sample. Even at very low annealing temperatures there was little effect on the community structure, although the abundance of some OTUs such as Bifidobacterium increased. Using shorter primers did not reveal any novel OTUs but did change the community profile obtained. Mechanical disruption of the sample by bead beating had a significant effect on the results obtained, as did repeated freezing and thawing. In conclusion, existing primers and standard annealing temperatures captured as much diversity as lower annealing temperatures and shorter primers. PMID:22666455

High-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons: effects of extraction procedure, primer length and annealing temperature.

PubMed

Sergeant, Martin J; Constantinidou, Chrystala; Cogan, Tristan; Penn, Charles W; Pallen, Mark J

2012-01-01

The analysis of 16S-rDNA sequences to assess the bacterial community composition of a sample is a widely used technique that has increased with the advent of high throughput sequencing. Although considerable effort has been devoted to identifying the most informative region of the 16S gene and the optimal informatics procedures to process the data, little attention has been paid to the PCR step, in particular annealing temperature and primer length. To address this, amplicons derived from 16S-rDNA were generated from chicken caecal content DNA using different annealing temperatures, primers and different DNA extraction procedures. The amplicons were pyrosequenced to determine the optimal protocols for capture of maximum bacterial diversity from a chicken caecal sample. Even at very low annealing temperatures there was little effect on the community structure, although the abundance of some OTUs such as Bifidobacterium increased. Using shorter primers did not reveal any novel OTUs but did change the community profile obtained. Mechanical disruption of the sample by bead beating had a significant effect on the results obtained, as did repeated freezing and thawing. In conclusion, existing primers and standard annealing temperatures captured as much diversity as lower annealing temperatures and shorter primers.

All set, indeed! N2pc components reveal simultaneous attentional control settings for multiple target colors.

PubMed

Grubert, Anna; Eimer, Martin

2016-08-01

To study whether top-down attentional control processes can be set simultaneously for different visual features, we employed a spatial cueing procedure to measure behavioral and electrophysiological markers of task-set contingent attentional capture during search for targets defined by 1 or 2 possible colors (one-color and two-color tasks). Search arrays were preceded by spatially nonpredictive color singleton cues. Behavioral spatial cueing effects indicative of attentional capture were elicited only by target-matching but not by distractor-color cues. However, when search displays contained 1 target-color and 1 distractor-color object among gray nontargets, N2pc components were triggered not only by target-color but also by distractor-color cues both in the one-color and two-color task, demonstrating that task-set nonmatching items attracted attention. When search displays contained 6 items in 6 different colors, so that participants had to adopt a fully feature-specific task set, the N2pc to distractor-color cues was eliminated in both tasks, indicating that nonmatching items were now successfully excluded from attentional processing. These results demonstrate that when observers adopt a feature-specific search mode, attentional task sets can be configured flexibly for multiple features within the same dimension, resulting in the rapid allocation of attention to task-set matching objects only. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Attentional Disengagement from Visually Unique and Unexpected Items at Fixation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brockmole, James R.; Boot, Walter R.

2009-01-01

Distinctive aspects of a scene can capture attention even when they are irrelevant to one's goals. The authors address whether visually unique, unexpected, but task-irrelevant features also tend to hold attention. Observers searched through displays in which the color of each item was irrelevant. At the start of search, all objects changed color.…

Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS): Psychometric Properties of the French Translation and Exploration of Its Relations with Emotion Regulation Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jermann, Francoise; Billieux, Joel; Laroi, Frank; d'Argembeau, Arnaud; Bondolfi, Guido; Zermatten, Ariane; Van der Linden, Martial

2009-01-01

Over the past few years, several questionnaires have been developed to measure mindfulness. The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) was created to specifically capture attention and awareness in daily life (Brown & Ryan, 2003). In this article, we present a French adaptation of the MAAS. In the 1st study, we explored the psychometric…

Whatever you do, don't look at the...: Evaluating guidance by an exclusionary attentional template.

PubMed

Beck, Valerie M; Luck, Steven J; Hollingworth, Andrew

2018-04-01

People can use a target template consisting of one or more features to guide attention and gaze to matching objects in a search array. But can we also use feature information to guide attention away from known irrelevant items? Some studies found a benefit from foreknowledge of a distractor feature, whereas others found a cost. Importantly, previous work has largely relied on end-of-trial manual responses; it is unclear how feature-guided avoidance might unfold as candidate objects are inspected. In the current experiments, participants were cued with a distractor feature to avoid, then performed a visual search task while eye movements were recorded. Participants initially fixated a to-be-avoided object more frequently than predicted by chance, but they also demonstrated avoidance of cue-matching objects later in the trial. When provided more time between cue stimulus and search array, participants continued to be initially captured by a cued-color item. Furthermore, avoidance of cue-matching objects later in the trial was not contingent on initial capture by a cue-matching object. These results suggest that the conflicting findings in previous negative-cue experiments may be explained by a mixture of two independent processes: initial attentional capture by memory-matching items and later avoidance of known irrelevant items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Funny money: the attentional role of monetary feedback detached from expected value.

PubMed

Roper, Zachary J J; Vecera, Shaun P

2016-10-01

Stimuli associated with monetary reward can become powerful cues that effectively capture visual attention. We examined whether such value-driven attentional capture can be induced with monetary feedback in the absence of an expected cash payout. To this end, we implemented images of U.S. dollar bills as reward feedback. Participants knew in advance that they would not receive any money based on their performance. Our reward stimuli-$5 and $20 bill images-were thus dissociated from any practical utility. Strikingly, we observed a reliable attentional capture effect for the mere images of bills. Moreover, this finding generalized to Monopoly money. In two control experiments, we found no evidence in favor of nominal or symbolic monetary value. Hence, we claim that bill images are special monetary representations, such that there are strong associations between the defining visual features of bills and reward, probably due to a lifelong learning history. Together, we show that the motivation to earn cash plays a minor role when it comes to monetary rewards, while bill-defining visual features seem to be sufficient. These findings have the potential to influence human factor applications, such as gamification, and can be extended to novel value systems, such as the electronic cash Bitcoin being developed for use in mobile banking. Finally, our procedure represents a proof of concept on how images of money can be used to conserve expenditures in the experimental context.

Own-race faces capture attention faster than other-race faces: evidence from response time and the N2pc.

PubMed

Zhou, Guomei; Cheng, Zhijie; Yue, Zhenzhu; Tredoux, Colin; He, Jibo; Wang, Ling

2015-01-01

Studies have shown that people are better at recognizing human faces from their own-race than from other-races, an effect often termed the Own-Race Advantage. The current study investigates whether there is an Own-Race Advantage in attention and its neural correlates. Participants were asked to search for a human face among animal faces. Experiment 1 showed a classic Own-Race Advantage in response time both for Chinese and Black South African participants. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), Experiment 2 showed a similar Own-Race Advantage in response time for both upright faces and inverted faces. Moreover, the latency of N2pc for own-race faces was earlier than that for other-race faces. These results suggested that own-race faces capture attention more efficiently than other-race faces.

Do the Contents of Visual Working Memory Automatically Influence Attentional Selection During Visual Search?

PubMed Central

Woodman, Geoffrey F.; Luck, Steven J.

2007-01-01

In many theories of cognition, researchers propose that working memory and perception operate interactively. For example, in previous studies researchers have suggested that sensory inputs matching the contents of working memory will have an automatic advantage in the competition for processing resources. The authors tested this hypothesis by requiring observers to perform a visual search task while concurrently maintaining object representations in visual working memory. The hypothesis that working memory activation produces a simple but uncontrollable bias signal leads to the prediction that items matching the contents of working memory will automatically capture attention. However, no evidence for automatic attentional capture was obtained; instead, the participants avoided attending to these items. Thus, the contents of working memory can be used in a flexible manner for facilitation or inhibition of processing. PMID:17469973

Do the contents of visual working memory automatically influence attentional selection during visual search?

PubMed

Woodman, Geoffrey F; Luck, Steven J

2007-04-01

In many theories of cognition, researchers propose that working memory and perception operate interactively. For example, in previous studies researchers have suggested that sensory inputs matching the contents of working memory will have an automatic advantage in the competition for processing resources. The authors tested this hypothesis by requiring observers to perform a visual search task while concurrently maintaining object representations in visual working memory. The hypothesis that working memory activation produces a simple but uncontrollable bias signal leads to the prediction that items matching the contents of working memory will automatically capture attention. However, no evidence for automatic attentional capture was obtained; instead, the participants avoided attending to these items. Thus, the contents of working memory can be used in a flexible manner for facilitation or inhibition of processing.

The power of listening: Lending an ear to the partner during dyadic coping conversations.

PubMed

Kuhn, Rebekka; Bradbury, Thomas N; Nussbeck, Fridtjof W; Bodenmann, Guy

2018-06-04

Although active, responsive listening is widely assumed to be essential for well-functioning intimate relationships, the manner in which this important behavior might promote closeness remains unknown. To test the prediction that listening may be especially influential when partners disclose experiences of stress, we instructed 365 heterosexual couples to hold two 8-min conversations in which each partner discussed a stressful personal experience while the other partner was asked to respond as he or she ordinarily would. We coded expressions of stress and listening behavior at 10-s intervals during these conversations, applied actor-partner multilevel models to compute a variable capturing the covariation between one partner's stress expression and the other partner's listening behavior, and then used that variable in regression analyses to predict observed dyadic coping behaviors, self-reports of the quality of dyadic coping in general, and self-reports of relationship satisfaction. Attentive listening while the other partner expressed stress was significantly linked with better dyadic coping behaviors and higher relationship satisfaction. Partners displaying less attentive listening during the partner's stress expression also engaged in more problem-oriented coping and more negative dyadic coping. Because attentive listening during disclosure of stress covaries in expected ways with support provision and judgments of relationship quality, appreciating the context-specific effects of active listening merits careful consideration as an intervention target in couple therapy and in relationship education programs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

The utilization of forensic science and criminal profiling for capturing serial killers.

PubMed

White, John H; Lester, David; Gentile, Matthew; Rosenbleeth, Juliana

2011-06-15

Movies and nightly television shows appear to emphasize highly efficient regimens in forensic science and criminal investigative analysis (profiling) that result in capturing serial killers and other perpetrators of homicide. Although some of the shows are apocryphal and unrealistic, they reflect major advancements that have been made in the fields of forensic science and criminal psychology during the past two decades that have helped police capture serial killers. Some of the advancements are outlined in this paper. In a study of 200 serial killers, we examined the variables that led to police focusing their attention on specific suspects. We developed 12 categories that describe how serial killers come to the attention of the police. The results of the present study indicate that most serial killers are captured as a result of citizens and surviving victims contributing information that resulted in police investigations that led to an arrest. The role of forensic science appears to be important in convicting the perpetrator, but not necessarily in identifying the perpetrator. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The role of magnocellular signals in oculomotor attentional capture

PubMed Central

Leonard, Carly J.; Luck, Steven J.

2011-01-01

While it is known that salient distractors often capture covert and overt attention, it is unclear whether salience signals that stem from magnocellular visual input have a more dominant role in oculomotor capture than those that result from parvocellular input. Because of the direct anatomical connections between the magnocellular pathway and the superior colliculus, salience signals generated from the magnocellular pathway may produce greater oculomotor capture than those from the parvocellular pathway, which could be potentially harder to overcome with “top-down”, goal-directed guidance. Although previous research has addressed this with regard to magnocellular transients, in the current research we investigated whether a static singleton distractor defined along a dimension visible to the magnocellular pathway would also produce enhanced oculomotor capture. In two experiments, we addressed this possibility by comparing a parvo-biased singleton condition, in which the distractor was defined by isoluminant chromatic color contrast, with a magno+parvo singleton condition, in which the distractor also differed in luminance from the surrounding objects. In both experiments, magno+parvo singletons elicited faster eye movements than parvo-only singletons, presumably reflecting faster information transmission in the magnocellular pathway, but magno+parvo singletons were not significantly more likely to produce oculomotor capture. Thus, although magnocellular salience signals are available more rapidly, they have no sizable advantage over parvocellular salience signals in controlling oculomotor orienting when all stimuli have a common onset. PMID:22076486

The contribution of color to attention capture effects during search for onset targets.

PubMed

Goller, Florian; Ditye, Thomas; Ansorge, Ulrich

2016-04-01

The literature on top-down contingent capture is concerned with the question of what constitutes a search set. Is it restricted to single stimulus properties such as color or onsets, or can such sets be more complex? In nine experiments (N = 140), we tested whether cueing effects during search for onset targets were affected by cue color. According to the classic theory of contingent capture (Folk, Remington, & Johnston, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 18, 1030-1044, 1992), during search for onset targets, cues capture attention on the basis of a match between the cue's onset and top-down control settings directed to the target onsets. However, such cueing effects were based on cues of a color similar to the target color. Therefore, matches of the cue color to the target color could have contributed to the effects. Indeed, here we found cueing effects when the cues and targets were of the same color, but not when they were of different colors (Exps. 1a, 1b, 4a, and 4b). In addition, same-color cueing effects were stronger than different-color cueing effects (Exps. 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, and the white-target conditions of Exp. 5). In Experiment 5, we also identified efficient search for only one target color as a critical prerequisite for the differences between cueing by color-similar and -dissimilar onset cues. We conclude with a discussion of the contributions of cue-to-set color matches, deallocation of attention, and intertrial priming to what appear to be top-down contingent-capture effects based on abrupt onsets.

Time and Cognitive Load in Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barrouillet, Pierre; Bernardin, Sophie; Portrat, Sophie; Vergauwe, Evie; Camos, Valerie

2007-01-01

According to the time-based resource-sharing model (P. Barrouillet, S. Bernardin, & V. Camos, 2004), the cognitive load a given task involves is a function of the proportion of time during which it captures attention, thus impeding other attention-demanding processes. Accordingly, the present study demonstrates that the disruptive effect on…

Ethical and Methodological Complexities in Research Involving Sexual Minorities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bettinger, Thomas V.

2010-01-01

While there is growing attention to sexual minorities in adult education (AE) and human resource development (HRD) literature, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people have received very little attention in AE or in HRD research. This article captures methodological issues and concerns from LBGTQ-related research from…

Capturing Students' Attention: An Empirical Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosegard, Erik; Wilson, Jackson

2013-01-01

College students ("n" = 846) enrolled in a general education course were randomly assigned to either an arousal (experimental) or no-arousal (control) group. The experimental group was exposed to a topic-relevant, 90-second external stimulus (a technique used to elevate arousal and focus attention). The control group listened to the…

Emotion Regulation and Heterogeneity in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Musser, Erica D.; Galloway-Long, Hilary S.; Frick, Paul J.; Nigg, Joel T.

2013-01-01

Objective: How best to capture heterogeneity in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using biomarkers has been elusive. This study evaluated whether emotion reactivity and regulation provide a means to achieve this. Method: Participants were classified into three groups: children with ADHD plus low prosocial behavior (hypothesized to be…

Tracking Actual Usage: The Attention Metadata Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolpers, Martin; Najjar, Jehad; Verbert, Katrien; Duval, Erik

2007-01-01

The information overload in learning and teaching scenarios is a main hindering factor for efficient and effective learning. New methods are needed to help teachers and students in dealing with the vast amount of available information and learning material. Our approach aims to utilize contextualized attention metadata to capture behavioural…

Elliptic Capture Orbits for Missions to the Near Planets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Casal, Federico G.; Swenson, Byron L.; Mascy, Alfred C.

1968-01-01

Elliptic capture orbits around Mars and Venus have often been considered as means for reducing arrival and departure energy requirements for two-way missions. It had also generally been feared that the energy savings obtained by capturing a spacecraft into a highly elliptical orbit (rather than a near circular orbit of the same periapsis) would largely be offset by the penalties incurred in aligning the semi-major axis of the ellipse in such a way as to obtain the proper orientation of the departure hyperbola. This paper, presents the results of an analysis which takes into consideration the penalties arising from the requirement to match the orientation of the elliptical orbit with the asymptote of the departure hyperbola. The scientific aspects of elliptical orbits around the target planet are discussed, and it is shown that such orbits exhibit characteristics which may be considered advantageous or disadvantageous depending on the purpose of the mission. Alignment of ' the semi-major axis of the capture, ellipse relative to the, asymptote of the escape hyperbola was found not to be a critical requirement since the kinetic energy remains high over a substantial portion of the elliptical capture orbit. This 'means that the escape stage can operate efficiently even when ignited at some angle from the true periapsis point. Considerable freedom in choosing this angle is available at little propulsive cost. The resulting latitude in the choice of angles between arrival and escape asymptotes makes it possible to consider a wide variety of interplanetary transfers and planetary staytimes without the need for separate propulsive maneuvers to realign the capture ellipse before departure., Special consideration has also been g1ven to plane change maneuvers around the planet. These may be required for reasons of orbit dynamics or scientific experimentation and are not uniquely tied to elliptical captures. The sensitivity of the mass of the excursion module to the eccentricity of the capture orbit is discussed and mass-penalty diagrams are presented. It is shown that these penalties do not materially offset the large gains obtained through the use of the elliptical capture mode.

Mothers' Attributions for Behavior in Nonproblem Boys, Boys with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Boys with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnston, Charlotte; Chen, Mandy; Ohan, Jeneva

2006-01-01

This study compared attributions for child behavior among mothers of 38 nonproblem boys, 26 boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and 25 boys with ADHD and oppositional defiant (OD) behavior. Boys ranged from 7 to 10 years of age. To capture different aspects of mothers' attributions, 2 assessment methods were employed: (a)…

The color red attracts attention in an emotional context. An ERP study

PubMed Central

Kuniecki, Michał; Pilarczyk, Joanna; Wichary, Szymon

2015-01-01

The color red is known to influence psychological functioning, having both negative (e.g., blood, fire, danger), and positive (e.g., sex, food) connotations. The aim of our study was to assess the attentional capture by red-colored images, and to explore the modulatory role of the emotional valence in this process, as postulated by Elliot and Maier (2012) color-in-context theory. Participants completed a dot-probe task with each cue comprising two images of equal valence and arousal, one containing a prominent red object and the other an object of different coloration. Reaction times were measured, as well as the event-related lateralizations of the EEG. Modulation of the lateralized components revealed that the color red captured and later held the attention in both positive and negative conditions, but not in a neutral condition. An overt motor response to the target stimulus was affected mainly by attention lingering over the visual field where the red cue had been flashed. However, a weak influence of the valence could still be detected in reaction times. Therefore, red seems to guide attention, specifically in emotionally-valenced circumstances, indicating that an emotional context can alter color’s impact both on attention and motor behavior. PMID:25972797

Reward, Attention, and HIV-related Risk in HIV+ Individuals

PubMed Central

Anderson, Brian A.; Kronemer, Sharif I.; Rilee, Jessica J.; Sacktor, Ned; Marvel, Cherie L.

2015-01-01

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is often contracted through engaging in risky reward-motivated behaviors such as needle sharing and unprotected sex. Understanding the factors that make an individual more vulnerable to succumbing to the temptation to engage in these risky behaviors is important to limiting the spread of HIV. One potential source of this vulnerability concerns the degree to which an individual is able to resist paying attention to irrelevant reward information. In the present study, we examine this possible link by characterizing individual differences in value-based attentional bias in a sample of HIV+ individuals with varying histories of risk-taking behavior. Participants learned associations between experimental stimuli and monetary reward outcome. The degree of attentional bias for these reward-associated stimuli, reflected in their ability to capture attention when presented as task-irrelevant distractors, was then assessed both immediately and six months following reward learning. Value-driven attentional capture was related to substance abuse history and non-planning impulsiveness during the time leading up to contraction of HIV as measured via self report. These findings suggest a link between the ability to ignore reward-associated information and prior HIV-related risk-taking behavior. Additionally, particular aspects of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders were related to attentional bias, including motor deficits commonly associated with HIV-induced damage to the basal ganglia. PMID:26484383

Reward, attention, and HIV-related risk in HIV+ individuals.

PubMed

Anderson, Brian A; Kronemer, Sharif I; Rilee, Jessica J; Sacktor, Ned; Marvel, Cherie L

2016-08-01

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is often contracted through engaging in risky reward-motivated behaviors such as needle sharing and unprotected sex. Understanding the factors that make an individual more vulnerable to succumbing to the temptation to engage in these risky behaviors is important to limiting the spread of HIV. One potential source of this vulnerability concerns the degree to which an individual is able to resist paying attention to irrelevant reward information. In the present study, we examine this possible link by characterizing individual differences in value-based attentional bias in a sample of HIV+ individuals with varying histories of risk-taking behavior. Participants learned associations between experimental stimuli and monetary reward outcome. The degree of attentional bias for these reward-associated stimuli, reflected in their ability to capture attention when presented as task-irrelevant distractors, was then assessed both immediately and six months following reward learning. Value-driven attentional capture was related to substance abuse history and non-planning impulsiveness during the time leading up to contraction of HIV as measured via self-report. These findings suggest a link between the ability to ignore reward-associated information and prior HIV-related risk-taking behavior. Additionally, particular aspects of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders were related to attentional bias, including motor deficits commonly associated with HIV-induced damage to the basal ganglia. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Irrelevant learned reward associations disrupt voluntary spatial attention.

PubMed

MacLean, Mary H; Diaz, Gisella K; Giesbrecht, Barry

2016-10-01

Attention can be guided involuntarily by physical salience and by non-salient, previously learned reward associations that are currently task-irrelevant. Attention can be guided voluntarily by current goals and expectations. The current study examined, in two experiments, whether irrelevant reward associations could disrupt current, goal-driven, voluntary attention. In a letter-search task, attention was directed voluntarily (i.e., cued) on half the trials by a cue stimulus indicating the hemifield in which the target letter would appear with 100 % accuracy. On the other half of the trials, a cue stimulus was presented, but it did not provide information about the target hemifield (i.e., uncued). On both cued and uncued trials, attention could be involuntarily captured by the presence of a task-irrelevant, and physically non-salient, color, either within the cued or the uncued hemifield. Importantly, one week prior to the letter search task, the irrelevant color had served as a target feature that was predictive of reward in a separate training task. Target identification accuracy was better on cued compared to uncued trials. However, this effect was reduced when the irrelevant, and physically non-salient, reward-associated feature was present in the uncued hemifield. This effect was not observed in a second, control experiment in which the irrelevant color was not predictive of reward during training. Our results indicate that involuntary, value-driven capture can disrupt the voluntary control of spatial attention.

Effects of social and affective content on exogenous attention as revealed by event-related potentials.

PubMed

Kosonogov, Vladimir; Martinez-Selva, Jose M; Carrillo-Verdejo, Eduvigis; Torrente, Ginesa; Carretié, Luis; Sanchez-Navarro, Juan P

2018-06-18

The social content of affective stimuli has been proposed as having an influence on cognitive processing and behaviour. This research was aimed, therefore, at studying whether automatic exogenous attention demanded by affective pictures was related to their social value. We hypothesised that affective social pictures would capture attention to a greater extent than non-social affective stimuli. For this purpose, we recorded event-related potentials in a sample of 24 participants engaged in a digit categorisation task. Distracters were affective pictures varying in social content, in addition to affective valence and arousal, which appeared in the background during the task. Our data revealed that pictures depicting high social content captured greater automatic attention than other pictures, as reflected by the greater amplitude and shorter latency of anterior P2, and anterior and posterior N2 components of the ERPs. In addition, social content also provoked greater allocation of processing resources as manifested by P3 amplitude, likely related to the high arousal they elicited. These results extend data from previous research by showing the relevance of the social value of the affective stimuli on automatic attentional processing.

Decomposing experience-driven attention: Opposite attentional effects of previously predictive cues.

PubMed

Lin, Zhicheng; Lu, Zhong-Lin; He, Sheng

2016-10-01

A central function of the brain is to track the dynamic statistical regularities in the environment - such as what predicts what over time. How does this statistical learning process alter sensory and attentional processes? Drawing upon animal conditioning and predictive coding, we developed a learning procedure that revealed two distinct components through which prior learning-experience controls attention. During learning, a visual search task was used in which the target randomly appeared at one of several locations but always inside an encloser of a particular color - the learned color served to direct attention to the target location. During test, the color no longer predicted the target location. When the same search task was used in the subsequent test, we found that the learned color continued to attract attention despite the behavior being counterproductive for the task and despite the presence of a completely predictive cue. However, when tested with a flanker task that had minimal location uncertainty - the target was at the fixation surrounded by a distractor - participants were better at ignoring distractors in the learned color than other colors. Evidently, previously predictive cues capture attention in the same search task but can be better suppressed in a flanker task. These results demonstrate opposing components - capture and inhibition - in experience-driven attention, with their manifestations crucially dependent on task context. We conclude that associative learning enhances context-sensitive top-down modulation while it reduces bottom-up sensory drive and facilitates suppression, supporting a learning-based predictive coding account.

Exogenous (automatic) attention to emotional stimuli: a review.

PubMed

Carretié, Luis

2014-12-01

Current knowledge on the architecture of exogenous attention (also called automatic, bottom-up, or stimulus-driven attention, among other terms) has been mainly obtained from studies employing neutral, anodyne stimuli. Since, from an evolutionary perspective, exogenous attention can be understood as an adaptive tool for rapidly detecting salient events, reorienting processing resources to them, and enhancing processing mechanisms, emotional events (which are, by definition, salient for the individual) would seem crucial to a comprehensive understanding of this process. This review, focusing on the visual modality, describes 55 experiments in which both emotional and neutral irrelevant distractors are presented at the same time as ongoing task targets. Qualitative and, when possible, meta-analytic descriptions of results are provided. The most conspicuous result is that, as confirmed by behavioral and/or neural indices, emotional distractors capture exogenous attention to a significantly greater extent than do neutral distractors. The modulatory effects of the nature of distractors capturing attention, of the ongoing task characteristics, and of individual differences, previously proposed as mediating factors, are also described. Additionally, studies reviewed here provide temporal and spatial information-partially absent in traditional cognitive models-on the neural basis of preattention/evaluation, reorienting, and sensory amplification, the main subprocesses involved in exogenous attention. A model integrating these different levels of information is proposed. The present review, which reveals that there are several key issues for which experimental data are surprisingly scarce, confirms the relevance of including emotional distractors in studies on exogenous attention.

Decomposing experience-driven attention: opposite attentional effects of previously predictive cues

PubMed Central

Lin, Zhicheng; Lu, Zhong-Lin; He, Sheng

2016-01-01

A central function of the brain is to track the dynamic statistical regularities in the environment—such as what predicts what over time. How does this statistical learning process alter sensory and attentional processes? Drawing upon animal conditioning and predictive coding, we developed a learning procedure that revealed two distinct components through which prior learning-experience controls attention. During learning, a visual search task was used in which the target randomly appeared at one of several locations but always inside an encloser of a particular color—the learned color served to direct attention to the target location. During test, the color no longer predicted the target location. When the same search task was used in the subsequent test, we found that the learned color continued to attract attention despite the behavior being counterproductive for the task and despite the presence of a completely predictive cue. However, when tested with a flanker task that had minimal location uncertainty—the target was at the fixation surrounded by a distractor—participants were better at ignoring distractors in the learned color than other colors. Evidently, previously predictive cues capture attention in the same search task but can be better suppressed in a flanker task. These results demonstrate opposing components—capture and inhibition—in experience-driven attention, with their manifestations crucially dependent on task context. We conclude that associative learning enhances context-sensitive top-down modulation while reduces bottom-up sensory drive and facilitates suppression, supporting a learning-based predictive coding account. PMID:27068051

Relative abundance of mesopredators and size of oak patches in the cross-timbers ecoregion

USGS Publications Warehouse

Disney, M.R.; Hellgren, E.C.; Davis, C.A.; Leslie, David M.; Engle, David M.

2008-01-01

Mesopredators (e.g., raccoon Procyon lotor, Virginia opossum Didelphis virginiana, striped skunk Mephitis mephitis) have received considerable attention because of links to population declines in birds via increased nest predation, especially in landscapes fragmented by anthropogenic forces. Relationships of abundance of mesopredators to size of habitat patches have received less attention than relationships to other metrics of fragmentation, particularly edge characteristics. We tested the hypothesis that relative abundance of mesopredators (e.g., raccoons and Virginia opossums) was related negatively to size of forest patch. We delineated 15 patches of oak (Quercus) forest ranging from 0.2 to 55.3 ha within a grassland-woodland mosaic in the cross-timbers ecoregion of Oklahoma. Scent stations and live traps within these patches were used to index relative abundance of mesopredators in summers 2003 and 2004. Both indices of relative abundance were related weakly and negatively to area of forest patch. However, rate of capture and visitation to scent station were not correlated consistently throughout the study. Our results suggested that the two methods to index abundance provided separate information on functional and numerical responses to size of patch. Our evidence that mesopredators within the cross timbers were more likely to be in smaller patches of oak forest may have implications to success of avian nesting in these patches.

Scene incongruity and attention.

PubMed

Mack, Arien; Clarke, Jason; Erol, Muge; Bert, John

2017-02-01

Does scene incongruity, (a mismatch between scene gist and a semantically incongruent object), capture attention and lead to conscious perception? We explored this question using 4 different procedures: Inattention (Experiment 1), Scene description (Experiment 2), Change detection (Experiment 3), and Iconic Memory (Experiment 4). We found no differences between scene incongruity and scene congruity in Experiments 1, 2, and 4, although in Experiment 3 change detection was faster for scenes containing an incongruent object. We offer an explanation for why the change detection results differ from the results of the other three experiments. In all four experiments, participants invariably failed to report the incongruity and routinely mis-described it by normalizing the incongruent object. None of the results supports the claim that semantic incongruity within a scene invariably captures attention and provide strong evidence of the dominant role of scene gist in determining what is perceived. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Goal-driven modulation of stimulus-driven attentional capture in multiple-cue displays.

PubMed

Richard, Christian M; Wright, Richard D; Ward, Lawrence M

2003-08-01

Six location-cuing experiments were conducted to examine the goal-driven control of attentional capture in multiple-cue displays. In most of the experiments, the cue display consisted of the simultaneous presentation of a red direct cue that was highly predictive of the target location (the unique cue) and three gray direct cues (the standard cues) that were not predictive of the location. The results indicated that although target responses were faster at all cued locations relative to uncued locations, they were significantly faster at the unique-cue location than at the standard-cue locations. Other results suggest that the faster responses produced by direct cues may be associated with two different components: an attention-related component that can be modulated by goal-driven factors and a nonattentional component that occurs in parallel at multiple direct-cue locations and is minimally affected by the same goal-driven factors.

Diffusion models of the flanker task: Discrete versus gradual attentional selection

PubMed Central

White, Corey N.; Ratcliff, Roger; Starns, Jeffrey S.

2011-01-01

The present study tested diffusion models of processing in the flanker task, in which participants identify a target that is flanked by items that indicate the same (congruent) or opposite response (incongruent). Single- and dual-process flanker models were implemented in a diffusion-model framework and tested against data from experiments that manipulated response bias, speed/accuracy tradeoffs, attentional focus, and stimulus configuration. There was strong mimcry among the models, and each captured the main trends in the data for the standard conditions. However, when more complex conditions were used, a single-process spotlight model captured qualitative and quantitative patterns that the dual-process models could not. Since the single-process model provided the best balance of fit quality and parsimony, the results indicate that processing in the simple versions of the flanker task is better described by gradual rather than discrete narrowing of attention. PMID:21964663

Motivation and attention: Incongruent effects of feedback on the processing of valence.

PubMed

Rothermund, Klaus

2003-09-01

Four experiments investigated the relation between outcome-related motivational states and processes of automatic attention allocation. Experiments 1-3 analyzed influences of feedback on evaluative decisions. Words of opposite valence to the feedback were processed faster, indicating that it is easier to allocate attention to the valence of an affectively incongruent word. Experiment 4 replicated the incongruent effect with interference effects of word valence in a grammatical-categorization task, indicating that the effect reflects automatic attentional capture. In all experiments, incongruent effects of feedback emerged only in a situation involving an attentional shift between words that differed in valence.

Vegetarianism and food perception. Selective visual attention to meat pictures.

PubMed

Stockburger, Jessica; Renner, Britta; Weike, Almut I; Hamm, Alfons O; Schupp, Harald T

2009-04-01

Vegetarianism provides a model system to examine the impact of negative affect towards meat, based on ideational reasoning. It was hypothesized that meat stimuli are efficient attention catchers in vegetarians. Event-related brain potential recordings served to index selective attention processes at the level of initial stimulus perception. Consistent with the hypothesis, late positive potentials to meat pictures were enlarged in vegetarians compared to omnivores. This effect was specific for meat pictures and obtained during passive viewing and an explicit attention task condition. These findings demonstrate the attention capture of food stimuli, deriving affective salience from ideational reasoning and symbolic meaning.

The Use of Military Force to Counter International Terrorism - A Policy Dilemma.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-06-05

front ot U.S. attention . Secretary of State George Shultz emphasized U.S. concerns about this growing threat when he wrote: For we must understand...grow;ny. While it captures world attention with vioient *riu spectacular attacks, international terrorism is tacget.,, U.S. foreign interests and its... attention away from the real issue of imperialistic oppression, racism and colonialism.2 2 Critics of the resolution also maintained thaz tne proposal

Visual Scan Adaptation During Repeated Visual Search

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-01-01

Junge, J. A. (2004). Searching for stimulus-driven shifts of attention. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review , 11, 876–881. Furst, C. J. (1971...search strategies cannot override attentional capture. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review , 11, 65–70. Wolfe, J. M. (1994). Guided search 2.0: A revised model...of visual search. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review , 1, 202–238. Wolfe, J. M. (1998a). Visual search. In H. Pashler (Ed.), Attention (pp. 13–73). East

The cognitive benefits of interacting with nature.

PubMed

Berman, Marc G; Jonides, John; Kaplan, Stephen

2008-12-01

We compare the restorative effects on cognitive functioning of interactions with natural versus urban environments. Attention restoration theory (ART) provides an analysis of the kinds of environments that lead to improvements in directed-attention abilities. Nature, which is filled with intriguing stimuli, modestly grabs attention in a bottom-up fashion, allowing top-down directed-attention abilities a chance to replenish. Unlike natural environments, urban environments are filled with stimulation that captures attention dramatically and additionally requires directed attention (e.g., to avoid being hit by a car), making them less restorative. We present two experiments that show that walking in nature or viewing pictures of nature can improve directed-attention abilities as measured with a backwards digit-span task and the Attention Network Task, thus validating attention restoration theory.

Attention: Reaction Time and Accuracy Reveal Different Mechanisms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prinzmetal, William; McCool, Christin; Park, Samuel

2005-01-01

The authors propose that there are 2 different mechanisms whereby spatial cues capture attention. The voluntary mechanism is the strategic allocation of perceptual resources to the location most likely to contain the target. The involuntary mechanism is a reflexive orienting response that occurs even when the spatial cue does not indicate the…

Escaping Capture: Bilingualism Modulates Distraction from Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hernandez, Mireia; Costa, Albert; Humphreys, Glyn W.

2012-01-01

We ask whether bilingualism aids cognitive control over the inadvertent guidance of visual attention from working memory and from bottom-up cueing. We compare highly-proficient Catalan-Spanish bilinguals with Spanish monolinguals in three visual search conditions. In the working memory (WM) condition, attention was driven in a top-down fashion by…

Modeling Age Differences in Infant Category Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shultz, Thomas R.; Cohen, Leslie B.

2004-01-01

We used an encoder version of cascade correlation to simulate Younger and Cohen's (1983, 1986) finding that 10-month-olds recover attention on the basis of correlations among stimulus features, but 4- and 7-month-olds recover attention on the basis of stimulus features. We captured these effects by varying the score threshold parameter in cascade…

On the Electrophysiological Evidence for the Capture of Visual Attention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDonald, John J.; Green, Jessica J.; Jannati, Ali; Di Lollo, Vincent

2013-01-01

The presence of a salient distractor interferes with visual search. According to the salience-driven selection hypothesis, this interference is because of an initial deployment of attention to the distractor. Three event-related potential (ERP) findings have been regarded as evidence for this hypothesis: (a) salient distractors were found to…

Dorsal and ventral working memory-related brain areas support distinct processes in contextual cueing.

PubMed

Manginelli, Angela A; Baumgartner, Florian; Pollmann, Stefan

2013-02-15

Behavioral evidence suggests that the use of implicitly learned spatial contexts for improved visual search may depend on visual working memory resources. Working memory may be involved in contextual cueing in different ways: (1) for keeping implicitly learned working memory contents available during search or (2) for the capture of attention by contexts retrieved from memory. We mapped brain areas that were modulated by working memory capacity. Within these areas, activation was modulated by contextual cueing along the descending segment of the intraparietal sulcus, an area that has previously been related to maintenance of explicit memories. Increased activation for learned displays, but not modulated by the size of contextual cueing, was observed in the temporo-parietal junction area, previously associated with the capture of attention by explicitly retrieved memory items, and in the ventral visual cortex. This pattern of activation extends previous research on dorsal versus ventral stream functions in memory guidance of attention to the realm of attentional guidance by implicit memory. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluative ratings and attention across the life span: emotional arousal and gender.

PubMed

Ferrari, Vera; Bruno, Nicola; Chattat, Rabih; Codispoti, Maurizio

2017-04-01

This study was designed to investigate the evolution of emotional processing over the whole adult life span as a function of stimulus arousal and participants' gender. To this end, self-reported affective evaluation and attentional capture prompted by pleasant and unpleasant pictures varying in arousal were measured in a large sample of participants (n = 211) balanced by gender and equally spread across seven decades from 20 to 90 years. Results showed age differences only for affective evaluation of pleasant stimuli, with opposite patterns depending on stimulus arousal. As age increased, low-arousing pleasant cues (e.g. images of babies) were experienced as more pleasant and arousing by both males and females, whereas high-arousing stimuli (e.g. erotic images) were experienced as less pleasant only by females. In contrast, emotional pictures (both pleasant and unpleasant) were effective at capturing attention in a similar way across participants, regardless of age and gender. Taken together, these findings suggest that specific emotional cues prompt different subjective responses across different age groups, while basic mechanisms involved in attentional engagement towards both pleasant and unpleasant stimuli are preserved in healthy ageing.

Electrophysiological evidence for attentional capture by irrelevant angry facial expressions: Naturalistic faces.

PubMed

Burra, Nicolas; Coll, Sélim Yahia; Barras, Caroline; Kerzel, Dirk

2017-01-10

Recently, research on lateralized event related potentials (ERPs) in response to irrelevant distractors has revealed that angry but not happy schematic distractors capture spatial attention. Whether this effect occurs in the context of the natural expression of emotions is unknown. To fill this gap, observers were asked to judge the gender of a natural face surrounded by a color singleton among five other face identities. In contrast to previous studies, the similarity between the task-relevant feature (color) and the distractor features was low. On some trials, the target was displayed concurrently with an irrelevant angry or happy face. The lateralized ERPs to these distractors were measured as a marker of spatial attention. Our results revealed that angry face distractors, but not happy face distractors, triggered a P D , which is a marker of distractor suppression. Subsequent to the P D , angry distractors elicited a larger N450 component, which is associated with conflict detection. We conclude that threatening expressions have a high attentional priority because of their emotional value, resulting in early suppression and late conflict detection. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perceiving referential intent: Dynamics of reference in natural parent-child interactions

PubMed Central

Trueswell, John C.; Lin, Yi; Armstrong, Benjamin; Cartmill, Erica A.; Goldin-Meadow, Susan; Gleitman, Lila R.

2016-01-01

Two studies are presented which examined the temporal dynamics of the social-attentive behaviors that co-occur with referent identification during natural parent-child interactions in the home. Study 1 focused on 6.2 hours of videos of 56 parents interacting during everyday activities with their 14–18 month-olds, during which parents uttered common nouns as parts of spontaneously occurring utterances. Trained coders recorded, on a second-by-second basis, parent and child attentional behaviors relevant to reference in the period (40 sec.) immediately surrounding parental naming. The referential transparency of each interaction was independently assessed by having naïve adult participants guess what word the parent had uttered in these video segments, but with the audio turned off, forcing them to use only non-linguistic evidence available in the ongoing stream of events. We found a great deal of ambiguity in the input along with a few potent moments of word-referent transparency; these transparent moments have a particular temporal signature with respect to parent and child attentive behavior: it was the object’s appearance and/or the fact that it captured parent/child attention at the moment the word was uttered, not the presence of the object throughout the video, that predicted observers’ accuracy. Study 2 experimentally investigated the precision of the timing relation, and whether it has an effect on observer accuracy, by disrupting the timing between when the word was uttered and the behaviors present in the videos as they were originally recorded. Disrupting timing by only +/− 1 to 2 sec. reduced participant confidence and significantly decreased their accuracy in word identification. The results enhance an expanding literature on how dyadic attentional factors can influence early vocabulary growth. By hypothesis, this kind of time-sensitive data-selection process operates as a filter on input, removing many extraneous and ill-supported word-meaning hypotheses from consideration during children’s early vocabulary learning. PMID:26775159

Use of the superpopulation approach to estimate breeding population size: An example in asynchronously breeding birds

USGS Publications Warehouse

Williams, K.A.; Frederick, P.C.; Nichols, J.D.

2011-01-01

Many populations of animals are fluid in both space and time, making estimation of numbers difficult. Much attention has been devoted to estimation of bias in detection of animals that are present at the time of survey. However, an equally important problem is estimation of population size when all animals are not present on all survey occasions. Here, we showcase use of the superpopulation approach to capture-recapture modeling for estimating populations where group membership is asynchronous, and where considerable overlap in group membership among sampling occasions may occur. We estimate total population size of long-legged wading bird (Great Egret and White Ibis) breeding colonies from aerial observations of individually identifiable nests at various times in the nesting season. Initiation and termination of nests were analogous to entry and departure from a population. Estimates using the superpopulation approach were 47-382% larger than peak aerial counts of the same colonies. Our results indicate that the use of the superpopulation approach to model nesting asynchrony provides a considerably less biased and more efficient estimate of nesting activity than traditional methods. We suggest that this approach may also be used to derive population estimates in a variety of situations where group membership is fluid. ?? 2011 by the Ecological Society of America.

A flexible framework for process-based hydraulic and water ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Background Models that allow for design considerations of green infrastructure (GI) practices to control stormwater runoff and associated contaminants have received considerable attention in recent years. While popular, generally, the GI models are relatively simplistic. However, GI model predictions are being relied upon by many municipalities and State/Local agencies to make decisions about grey vs. green infrastructure improvement planning. Adding complexity to GI modeling frameworks may preclude their use in simpler urban planning situations. Therefore, the goal here was to develop a sophisticated, yet flexible tool that could be used by design engineers and researchers to capture and explore the effect of design factors and properties of the media used in the performance of GI systems at a relatively small scale. We deemed it essential to have a flexible GI modeling tool that is capable of simulating GI system components and specific biophysical processes affecting contaminants such as reactions, and particle-associated transport accurately while maintaining a high degree of flexibly to account for the myriad of GI alternatives. The mathematical framework for a stand-alone GI performance assessment tool has been developed and will be demonstrated.Framework Features The process-based model framework developed here can be used to model a diverse range of GI practices such as green roof, retention pond, bioretention, infiltration trench, permeable pavement and

Perspectives on Adolescent Alcohol Use and Consideration of Future Consequences: Results from a Qualitative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harvey, Séamus A.; McKay, Michael T.

2017-01-01

Consideration of future consequences (CFC) is described as the attention that individuals pay to the potential outcomes of their behaviour, and how their behaviour is affected as a result of attention to these outcomes. Greater CFC has been associated with less alcohol use, thus indicating its potential utility in health-promotion initiatives. A…

Computer-Mediated Communication Preferences and Individual Differences in Neurocognitive Measures of Emotional Attention Capture, Reactivity and Regulation

PubMed Central

Babkirk, Sarah; Luehring-Jones, Peter; Dennis, Tracy A.

2016-01-01

The use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) to engage socially has become increasingly prevalent, yet few studies examined individual differences that may shed light on implications of CMC for adjustment. The current study examined neurocognitive individual differences associated with preferences to use technology in relation to social-emotional outcomes. In Study 1 (N =91), a self-report measure, the Social Media Communication Questionnaire (SMCQ), was evaluated as an assessment of preferences for communicating positive and negative emotions on a scale ranging from purely via CMC to purely face-to-face. In Study 2, SMCQ preferences were examined in relation to event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with early emotional attention capture and reactivity (the frontal N1) and later sustained emotional processing and regulation [the late positive potential (LPP)]. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded while 22 participants passively viewed emotional and neutral pictures and completed an emotion regulation task with instructions to increase, decrease or maintain their emotional responses. A greater preference for CMC was associated with reduced size of and satisfaction with social support, greater early (N1) attention capture by emotional stimuli, and reduced LPP amplitudes to unpleasant stimuli in the increase emotion regulatory task. These findings are discussed in the context of possible emotion- and social-regulatory functions of CMC. PMID:26613269

Capturing, Codifying and Scoring Complex Data for Innovative, Computer-Based Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luecht, Richard M.

The Microsoft Certification Program (MCP) includes many new computer-based item types, based on complex cases involving the Windows 2000 (registered) operating system. This Innovative Item Technology (IIT) has presented challenges beyond traditional psychometric considerations such as capturing and storing the relevant response data from…

Top-down and bottom-up attention to memory: a hypothesis (AtoM) on the role of the posterior parietal cortex in memory retrieval.

PubMed

Ciaramelli, Elisa; Grady, Cheryl L; Moscovitch, Morris

2008-01-01

Recent neuroimaging studies have implicated the posterior parietal cortex in episodic memory retrieval, but there is uncertainty about its specific role. Research in the attentional domain has shown that superior parietal lobe (SPL) regions along the intraparietal sulcus are implicated in the voluntary orienting of attention to relevant aspects of the environment, whereas inferior parietal lobe (IPL) regions at the temporo-parietal junction mediate the automatic allocation of attention to task-relevant information. Here we propose that the SPL and the IPL play conceptually similar roles in episodic memory retrieval. We hypothesize that the SPL allocates top-down attention to memory retrieval, whereas the IPL mediates the automatic, bottom-up attentional capture by retrieved memory contents. By reviewing the existing fMRI literature, we show that the posterior intraparietal sulcus of SPL is consistently active when the need for top-down assistance to memory retrieval is supposedly maximal, e.g., for memories retrieved with low vs. high confidence, for familiar vs. recollected memories, for recognition of high vs. low frequency words. On the other hand, the supramarginal gyrus of IPL is consistently active when the attentional capture by memory contents is supposedly maximal, i.e., for strong vs. weak memories, for vividly recollected vs. familiar memories, for memories retrieved with high vs. low confidence. We introduce a model of episodic memory retrieval that characterizes contributions of posterior parietal cortex.

A Salient and Task-Irrelevant Collinear Structure Hurts Visual Search

PubMed Central

Tseng, Chia-huei; Jingling, Li

2015-01-01

Salient distractors draw our attention spontaneously, even when we intentionally want to ignore them. When this occurs, the real targets close to or overlapping with the distractors benefit from attention capture and thus are detected and discriminated more quickly. However, a puzzling opposite effect was observed in a search display with a column of vertical collinear bars presented as a task-irrelevant distractor [6]. In this case, it was harder to discriminate the targets overlapping with the salient distractor. Here we examined whether this effect originated from factors known to modulate attentional capture: (a) low probability—the probability occurrence of target location at the collinear column was much less (14%) than the rest of the display (86%), and observers might strategically direct their attention away from the collinear distractor; (b) attentional control setting—the distractor and target task interfered with each other because they shared the same continuity set in attentional task; and/or (c) lack of time to establish the optional strategy. We tested these hypotheses by (a) increasing to 60% the trials in which targets overlapped with the same collinear distractor columns, (b) replacing the target task to be connectivity-irrelevant (i.e., luminance discrimination), and (c) having our observers practice the same search task for 10 days. Our results speak against all these hypotheses and lead us to conclude that a collinear distractor impairs search at a level that is unaffected by probabilistic information, attentional setting, and learning. PMID:25909986

A Qualitative Approach to Understanding the Role of Lecture Capture in Student Learning Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Gareth; Ivaldi, Antonia

2017-01-01

Lectures continue to be the dominant form of university teaching, and lecture capture technologies are tentatively taken up to support this form of delivery, rather than being used as a viable alternative. Much of the previous research, however, has been self-reports or survey-based, with far less attention given to qualitative explorations. This…

The influence of attention on value integration.

PubMed

Kunar, Melina A; Watson, Derrick G; Tsetsos, Konstantinos; Chater, Nick

2017-08-01

People often have to make decisions based on many pieces of information. Previous work has found that people are able to integrate values presented in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream to make informed judgements on the overall stream value (Tsetsos et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(24), 9659-9664, 2012). It is also well known that attentional mechanisms influence how people process information. However, it is unknown how attentional factors impact value judgements of integrated material. The current study is the first of its kind to investigate whether value judgements are influenced by attentional processes when assimilating information. Experiments 1-3 examined whether the attentional salience of an item within an RSVP stream affected judgements of overall stream value. The results showed that the presence of an irrelevant high or low value salient item biased people to judge the stream as having a higher or lower overall mean value, respectively. Experiments 4-7 directly tested Tsetsos et al.'s (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(24), 9659-9664, 2012) theory examining whether extreme values in an RSVP stream become over-weighted, thereby capturing attention more than other values in the stream. The results showed that the presence of both a high (Experiments 4, 6 and 7) and a low (Experiment 5) value outlier captures attention leading to less accurate report of subsequent items in the stream. Taken together, the results showed that valuations can be influenced by attentional processes, and can lead to less accurate subjective judgements.

Pet Face: Mechanisms Underlying Human-Animal Relationships

PubMed Central

Borgi, Marta; Cirulli, Francesca

2016-01-01

Accumulating behavioral and neurophysiological studies support the idea of infantile (cute) faces as highly biologically relevant stimuli rapidly and unconsciously capturing attention and eliciting positive/affectionate behaviors, including willingness to care. It has been hypothesized that the presence of infantile physical and behavioral features in companion (or pet) animals (i.e., dogs and cats) might form the basis of our attraction to these species. Preliminary evidence has indeed shown that the human attentional bias toward the baby schema may extend to animal facial configurations. In this review, the role of facial cues, specifically of infantile traits and facial signals (i.e., eyes gaze) as emotional and communicative signals is highlighted and discussed as regulating the human-animal bond, similarly to what can be observed in the adult-infant interaction context. Particular emphasis is given to the neuroendocrine regulation of the social bond between humans and animals through oxytocin secretion. Instead of considering companion animals as mere baby substitutes for their owners, in this review we highlight the central role of cats and dogs in human lives. Specifically, we consider the ability of companion animals to bond with humans as fulfilling the need for attention and emotional intimacy, thus serving similar psychological and adaptive functions as human-human friendships. In this context, facial cuteness is viewed not just as a releaser of care/parental behavior, but, more in general, as a trait motivating social engagement. To conclude, the impact of this information for applied disciplines is briefly described, particularly in consideration of the increasing evidence of the beneficial effects of contacts with animals for human health and wellbeing. PMID:27014120

Pet Face: Mechanisms Underlying Human-Animal Relationships.

PubMed

Borgi, Marta; Cirulli, Francesca

2016-01-01

Accumulating behavioral and neurophysiological studies support the idea of infantile (cute) faces as highly biologically relevant stimuli rapidly and unconsciously capturing attention and eliciting positive/affectionate behaviors, including willingness to care. It has been hypothesized that the presence of infantile physical and behavioral features in companion (or pet) animals (i.e., dogs and cats) might form the basis of our attraction to these species. Preliminary evidence has indeed shown that the human attentional bias toward the baby schema may extend to animal facial configurations. In this review, the role of facial cues, specifically of infantile traits and facial signals (i.e., eyes gaze) as emotional and communicative signals is highlighted and discussed as regulating the human-animal bond, similarly to what can be observed in the adult-infant interaction context. Particular emphasis is given to the neuroendocrine regulation of the social bond between humans and animals through oxytocin secretion. Instead of considering companion animals as mere baby substitutes for their owners, in this review we highlight the central role of cats and dogs in human lives. Specifically, we consider the ability of companion animals to bond with humans as fulfilling the need for attention and emotional intimacy, thus serving similar psychological and adaptive functions as human-human friendships. In this context, facial cuteness is viewed not just as a releaser of care/parental behavior, but, more in general, as a trait motivating social engagement. To conclude, the impact of this information for applied disciplines is briefly described, particularly in consideration of the increasing evidence of the beneficial effects of contacts with animals for human health and wellbeing.

The Role of Age, Working Memory, and Response Inhibition in Deviance Distraction: A Cross-Sectional Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leiva, Alicia; Andrés, Pilar; Servera, Mateu; Verbruggen, Frederick; Parmentier, Fabrice B. R.

2016-01-01

Sounds deviating from an otherwise repeated or structured sequence capture attention and affect performance in an ongoing visual task negatively, testament to the balance between selective attention and change detection. Although deviance distraction has been the object of much research, its modulation across the life span has been more scarcely…

Maintenance Rehearsal: The Key to the Role Attention Plays in Storage and Forgetting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McFarlane, Kimberley A.; Humphreys, Michael S.

2012-01-01

Research with the maintenance-rehearsal paradigm, in which word pairs are rehearsed as distractor material during a series of digit recall trials, has previously indicated that low frequency and new word pairs capture attention to a greater degree than high frequency and old word pairs. This impacts delayed recognition of the pairs and interferes…

What Drives Memory-Driven Attentional Capture? The Effects of Memory Type, Display Type, and Search Type

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olivers, Christian N. L.

2009-01-01

An important question is whether visual attention (the ability to select relevant visual information) and visual working memory (the ability to retain relevant visual information) share the same content representations. Some past research has indicated that they do: Singleton distractors interfered more strongly with a visual search task when they…

Do Faces Capture the Attention of Individuals with Williams Syndrome or Autism? Evidence from Tracking Eye Movements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riby, Deborah M.; Hancock, Peter J. B.

2009-01-01

The neuro-developmental disorders of Williams syndrome (WS) and autism can reveal key components of social cognition. Eye-tracking techniques were applied in two tasks exploring attention to pictures containing faces. Images were (i) scrambled pictures containing faces or (ii) pictures of scenes with embedded faces. Compared to individuals who…

Alterations in attention capture to auditory emotional stimuli in job burnout: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Sokka, Laura; Huotilainen, Minna; Leinikka, Marianne; Korpela, Jussi; Henelius, Andreas; Alain, Claude; Müller, Kiti; Pakarinen, Satu

2014-12-01

Job burnout is a significant cause of work absenteeism. Evidence from behavioral studies and patient reports suggests that job burnout is associated with impairments of attention and decreased working capacity, and it has overlapping elements with depression, anxiety and sleep disturbances. Here, we examined the electrophysiological correlates of automatic sound change detection and involuntary attention allocation in job burnout using scalp recordings of event-related potentials (ERP). Volunteers with job burnout symptoms but without severe depression and anxiety disorders and their non-burnout controls were presented with natural speech sound stimuli (standard and nine deviants), as well as three rarely occurring speech sounds with strong emotional prosody. All stimuli elicited mismatch negativity (MMN) responses that were comparable in both groups. The groups differed with respect to the P3a, an ERP component reflecting involuntary shift of attention: job burnout group showed a shorter P3a latency in response to the emotionally negative stimulus, and a longer latency in response to the positive stimulus. Results indicate that in job burnout, automatic speech sound discrimination is intact, but there is an attention capture tendency that is faster for negative, and slower to positive information compared to that of controls. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The attention-weighted sample-size model of visual short-term memory: Attention capture predicts resource allocation and memory load.

PubMed

Smith, Philip L; Lilburn, Simon D; Corbett, Elaine A; Sewell, David K; Kyllingsbæk, Søren

2016-09-01

We investigated the capacity of visual short-term memory (VSTM) in a phase discrimination task that required judgments about the configural relations between pairs of black and white features. Sewell et al. (2014) previously showed that VSTM capacity in an orientation discrimination task was well described by a sample-size model, which views VSTM as a resource comprised of a finite number of noisy stimulus samples. The model predicts the invariance of [Formula: see text] , the sum of squared sensitivities across items, for displays of different sizes. For phase discrimination, the set-size effect significantly exceeded that predicted by the sample-size model for both simultaneously and sequentially presented stimuli. Instead, the set-size effect and the serial position curves with sequential presentation were predicted by an attention-weighted version of the sample-size model, which assumes that one of the items in the display captures attention and receives a disproportionate share of resources. The choice probabilities and response time distributions from the task were well described by a diffusion decision model in which the drift rates embodied the assumptions of the attention-weighted sample-size model. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Distinct frontal and amygdala correlates of change detection for facial identity and expression

PubMed Central

Achaibou, Amal; Loth, Eva

2016-01-01

Recruitment of ‘top-down’ frontal attentional mechanisms is held to support detection of changes in task-relevant stimuli. Fluctuations in intrinsic frontal activity have been shown to impact task performance more generally. Meanwhile, the amygdala has been implicated in ‘bottom-up’ attentional capture by threat. Here, 22 adult human participants took part in a functional magnetic resonance change detection study aimed at investigating the correlates of successful (vs failed) detection of changes in facial identity vs expression. For identity changes, we expected prefrontal recruitment to differentiate ‘hit’ from ‘miss’ trials, in line with previous reports. Meanwhile, we postulated that a different mechanism would support detection of emotionally salient changes. Specifically, elevated amygdala activation was predicted to be associated with successful detection of threat-related changes in expression, over-riding the influence of fluctuations in top-down attention. Our findings revealed that fusiform activity tracked change detection across conditions. Ventrolateral prefrontal cortical activity was uniquely linked to detection of changes in identity not expression, and amygdala activity to detection of changes from neutral to fearful expressions. These results are consistent with distinct mechanisms supporting detection of changes in face identity vs expression, the former potentially reflecting top-down attention, the latter bottom-up attentional capture by stimulus emotional salience. PMID:26245835

No Prior Entry for Threat-Related Faces: Evidence from Temporal Order Judgments

PubMed Central

Schettino, Antonio; Loeys, Tom; Pourtois, Gilles

2013-01-01

Previous research showed that threat-related faces, due to their intrinsic motivational relevance, capture attention more readily than neutral faces. Here we used a standard temporal order judgment (TOJ) task to assess whether negative (either angry or fearful) emotional faces, when competing with neutral faces for attention selection, may lead to a prior entry effect and hence be perceived as appearing first, especially when uncertainty is high regarding the order of the two onsets. We did not find evidence for this conjecture across five different experiments, despite the fact that participants were invariably influenced by asynchronies in the respective onsets of the two competing faces in the pair, and could reliably identify the emotion in the faces. Importantly, by systematically varying task demands across experiments, we could rule out confounds related to suboptimal stimulus presentation or inappropriate task demands. These findings challenge the notion of an early automatic capture of attention by (negative) emotion. Future studies are needed to investigate whether the lack of systematic bias of attention by emotion is imputed to the primacy of a non-emotional cue to resolve the TOJ task, which in turn prevents negative emotion to exert an early bottom-up influence on the guidance of spatial and temporal attention. PMID:23646126

Through their eyes: selective attention in peahens during courtship

PubMed Central

Yorzinski, Jessica L.; Patricelli, Gail L.; Babcock, Jason S.; Pearson, John M.; Platt, Michael L.

2013-01-01

SUMMARY Conspicuous, multicomponent ornamentation in male animals can be favored by female mate choice but we know little about the cognitive processes females use to evaluate these traits. Sexual selection may favor attention mechanisms allowing the choosing females to selectively and efficiently acquire relevant information from complex male display traits and, in turn, may favor male display traits that effectively capture and hold female attention. Using a miniaturized telemetric gaze-tracker, we show that peahens (Pavo cristatus) selectively attend to specific components of peacock courtship displays and virtually ignore other, highly conspicuous components. Females gazed at the lower train but largely ignored the head, crest and upper train. When the lower train was obscured, however, females spent more time gazing at the upper train and approached the upper train from a distance. Our results suggest that peahens mainly evaluate the lower train during close-up courtship but use the upper train as a long-distance attraction signal. Furthermore, we found that behavioral display components (train rattling and wing shaking) captured and maintained female attention, indicating that interactions between display components may promote the evolution of multicomponent displays. Taken together, these findings suggest that selective attention plays a crucial role in sexual selection and likely influences the evolution of male display traits. PMID:23885088

Visual search for verbal material in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

PubMed

Botta, Fabiano; Vibert, Nicolas; Harika-Germaneau, Ghina; Frasca, Mickaël; Rigalleau, François; Fakra, Eric; Ros, Christine; Rouet, Jean-François; Ferreri, Florian; Jaafari, Nematollah

2018-06-01

This study aimed at investigating attentional mechanisms in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) by analysing how visual search processes are modulated by normal and obsession-related distracting information in OCD patients and whether these modulations differ from those observed in healthy people. OCD patients were asked to search for a target word within distractor words that could be orthographically similar to the target, semantically related to the target, semantically related to the most typical obsessions/compulsions observed in OCD patients, or unrelated to the target. Patients' performance and eye movements were compared with those of individually matched healthy controls. In controls, the distractors that were visually similar to the target mostly captured attention. Conversely, patients' attention was captured equally by all kinds of distractor words, whatever their similarity with the target, except obsession-related distractors that attracted patients' attention less than the other distractors. OCD had a major impact on the mostly subliminal mechanisms that guide attention within the search display, but had much less impact on the distractor rejection processes that take place when a distractor is fixated. Hence, visual search in OCD is characterized by abnormal subliminal, but not supraliminal, processing of obsession-related information and by an impaired ability to inhibit task-irrelevant inputs. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In Vitro Modeling of Mechanics in Cancer Metastasis

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

In addition to a multitude of genetic and biochemical alterations, abnormal morphological, structural, and mechanical changes in cells and their extracellular environment are key features of tumor invasion and metastasis. Furthermore, it is now evident that mechanical cues alongside biochemical signals contribute to critical steps of cancer initiation, progression, and spread. Despite its importance, it is very challenging to study mechanics of different steps of metastasis in the clinic or even in animal models. While considerable progress has been made in developing advanced in vitro models for studying genetic and biological aspects of cancer, less attention has been paid to models that can capture both biological and mechanical factors realistically. This is mainly due to lack of appropriate models and measurement tools. After introducing the central role of mechanics in cancer metastasis, we provide an outlook on the emergence of novel in vitro assays and their combination with advanced measurement technologies to probe and recapitulate mechanics in conditions more relevant to the metastatic disease. PMID:29457129

From "Where" to "What": Distributed Representations of Brand Associations in the Human Brain.

PubMed

Chen, Yu-Ping; Nelson, Leif D; Hsu, Ming

2015-08-01

Considerable attention has been given to the notion that there exists a set of human-like characteristics associated with brands, referred to as brand personality. Here we combine newly available machine learning techniques with functional neuroimaging data to characterize the set of processes that give rise to these associations. We show that brand personality traits can be captured by the weighted activity across a widely distributed set of brain regions previously implicated in reasoning, imagery, and affective processing. That is, as opposed to being constructed via reflective processes, brand personality traits appear to exist a priori inside the minds of consumers, such that we were able to predict what brand a person is thinking about based solely on the relationship between brand personality associations and brain activity. These findings represent an important advance in the application of neuroscientific methods to consumer research, moving from work focused on cataloguing brain regions associated with marketing stimuli to testing and refining mental constructs central to theories of consumer behavior.

Developing PFC representations using reinforcement learning

PubMed Central

Reynolds, Jeremy R.; O'Reilly, Randall C.

2009-01-01

From both functional and biological considerations, it is widely believed that action production, planning, and goal-oriented behaviors supported by the frontal cortex are organized hierarchically (Fuster, 1990, Koechlin, Ody, & Kouneiher, 2003, & Miller, Galanter, & Pribram, 1960) However, the nature of the different levels of the hierarchy remains unclear, and little attention has been paid to the origins of such a hierarchy. We address these issues through biologically-inspired computational models that develop representations through reinforcement learning. We explore several different factors in these models that might plausibly give rise to a hierarchical organization of representations within the PFC, including an initial connectivity hierarchy within PFC, a hierarchical set of connections between PFC and subcortical structures controlling it, and differential synaptic plasticity schedules. Simulation results indicate that architectural constraints contribute to the segregation of different types of representations, and that this segregation facilitates learning. These findings are consistent with the idea that there is a functional hierarchy in PFC, as captured in our earlier computational models of PFC function and a growing body of empirical data. PMID:19591977

Capturing and Explaining Preference Heterogeneity for Wetland Management Options in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Speelman, Stijn; Mombo, Felister; Vandermeulen, Valerie; Phillip, Damas; Van Huylenbroeck, Guido

2015-01-01

Wetland degradation has recently received considerable research attention. Although wetlands are valuable ecosystems, their actual value is difficult to measure because the services they provide often do not have market values. The current study seeks to investigate the preferences for wetland management options in the Kilombero Valley, central Tanzania using choice modeling. The results show that both respondents from the Kilombero Valley and Morogoro Municipality desire improvements in the condition of the wetlands. This indicates that the ongoing degradation is not socially optimal. A second finding is that the preferences for wetland conservation are heterogeneous and can be linked to livelihood characteristics. Communities living in the area, for example, are highly dependent on the wetland for their livelihood and would be impacted by conservation measures. Therefore, in order to reduce the pressure on wetlands, it is necessary and imperative to explore the options for alternative income-generating activities or to focus, for example, on technologies to improve efficiency and effectiveness in crop production.

From “Where” to “What”: Distributed Representations of Brand Associations in the Human Brain

PubMed Central

Chen, Yu-Ping; Nelson, Leif D.; Hsu, Ming

2015-01-01

Considerable attention has been given to the notion that there exists a set of human-like characteristics associated with brands, referred to as brand personality. Here we combine newly available machine learning techniques with functional neuroimaging data to characterize the set of processes that give rise to these associations. We show that brand personality traits can be captured by the weighted activity across a widely distributed set of brain regions previously implicated in reasoning, imagery, and affective processing. That is, as opposed to being constructed via reflective processes, brand personality traits appear to exist a priori inside the minds of consumers, such that we were able to predict what brand a person is thinking about based solely on the relationship between brand personality associations and brain activity. These findings represent an important advance in the application of neuroscientific methods to consumer research, moving from work focused on cataloguing brain regions associated with marketing stimuli to testing and refining mental constructs central to theories of consumer behavior. PMID:27065490

Peptide Functionalized Gold Nanorods for the Sensitive Detection of a Cardiac Biomarker Using Plasmonic Paper Devices.

PubMed

Tadepalli, Sirimuvva; Kuang, Zhifeng; Jiang, Qisheng; Liu, Keng-Ku; Fisher, Marilee A; Morrissey, Jeremiah J; Kharasch, Evan D; Slocik, Joseph M; Naik, Rajesh R; Singamaneni, Srikanth

2015-11-10

The sensitivity of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of metal nanostructures to adsorbates lends itself to a powerful class of label-free biosensors. Optical properties of plasmonic nanostructures are dependent on the geometrical features and the local dielectric environment. The exponential decay of the sensitivity from the surface of the plasmonic nanotransducer calls for the careful consideration in its design with particular attention to the size of the recognition and analyte layers. In this study, we demonstrate that short peptides as biorecognition elements (BRE) compared to larger antibodies as target capture agents offer several advantages. Using a bioplasmonic paper device (BPD), we demonstrate the selective and sensitive detection of the cardiac biomarker troponin I (cTnI). The smaller sized peptide provides higher sensitivity and a lower detection limit using a BPD. Furthermore, the excellent shelf-life and thermal stability of peptide-based LSPR sensors, which precludes the need for special storage conditions, makes it ideal for use in resource-limited settings.

Understanding Household Behavioral Risk Factors for Diarrheal Disease in Dar es Salaam: A Photovoice Community Assessment

PubMed Central

Badowski, Natalie; Castro, Cynthia M.; Montgomery, Maggie; Pickering, Amy J.; Mamuya, Simon; Davis, Jennifer

2011-01-01

Whereas Tanzania has seen considerable improvements in water and sanitation infrastructure over the past 20 years, the country still faces high rates of childhood morbidity from diarrheal diseases. This study utilized a qualitative, cross-sectional, modified Photovoice method to capture daily activities of Dar es Salaam mothers. A total of 127 photographs from 13 households were examined, and 13 interviews were conducted with household mothers. The photographs and interviews revealed insufficient hand washing procedures, unsafe disposal of wastewater, uncovered household drinking water containers, a lack of water treatment prior to consumption, and inappropriate toilets for use by small children. The interviews revealed that mothers were aware and knowledgeable of the risks of certain household practices and understood safer alternatives, yet were restricted by the perceived impracticality and financial constraints to make changes. The results draw attention to the real economic and behavioral challenges faced in reducing the spread of disease. PMID:21969836

The attraction of emotions: Irrelevant emotional information modulates motor actions.

PubMed

Ambron, Elisabetta; Foroni, Francesco

2015-08-01

Emotional expressions are important cues that capture our attention automatically. Although a wide range of work has explored the role and influence of emotions on cognition and behavior, little is known about the way that emotions influence motor actions. Moreover, considering how critical detecting emotional facial expressions in the environment can be, it is important to understand their impact even when they are not directly relevant to the task being performed. Our novel approach was to explore this issue from the attention-and-action perspective, using a task-irrelevant distractor paradigm in which participants are asked to reach for a target while a nontarget stimulus is also presented. We tested whether the movement trajectory would be influenced by irrelevant stimuli-faces with or without emotional expressions. The results showed that reaching paths veered toward faces with emotional expressions, in particular happiness, but not toward neutral expressions. This reinforces the view of emotions as attention-capturing stimuli that are, however, also potential sources of distraction for motor actions.

Attentional Capture by Superimposed Symbology: Boundary Conditions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McCann, Robert S.; Foyle, David C.; Johnston, James C.; Sridhar, Banavar (Technical Monitor)

1995-01-01

We report new results from an ongoing set of experiments in which subjects view a computer-generated display consisting of a set of stationary symbols (e.g., a "HUD") superimposed on a dynamic view of a runway as it appears to the pilot during final approach. Previous work (McCann, Foyle, & Johnston, 1993) has shown that when subjects process a cueing stimulus and then identify a geometric target, performance is slower when the cue appears on the HUD and the target appears on the runway surface, compared to a control condition where the cue and target are both on the runway surface. This "shift cost" was taken as evidence that the HUD captures attention, which then has to be shifted to the "out-the-world" scene before the target can be identified. New experiments show that the shift cost is eliminated when the cue occupies a known, fixed location on the HUD. Implications for the conditions that produce attentional tunneling are discussed.

The capture of attention by entirely irrelevant pictures of calorie-dense foods.

PubMed

Cunningham, Corbin A; Egeth, Howard E

2018-04-01

Inborn preference for palatable energy-dense food is thought to be an evolutionary adaptation. One way this preference manifests itself is through the control of visual attention. In the present study, we investigated how attentional capture is influenced by changes in naturally occurring goal-states, in this case desire for energy-dense foods (typically high fat and/or high sugar). We demonstrate that even when distractors are entirely irrelevant, participants were significantly more distracted by energy-dense foods compared with non-food objects and even low-energy foods. Additionally, we show the lability of these goal-states by having a separate set of participants consume a small amount of calorie-dense food prior to the task. The amount of distraction by the energy-dense food images in this case was significantly reduced and no different than distraction by images of low-energy foods and images of non-food objects. While naturally occurring goal-states can be difficult to ignore, they also are highly flexible.

The phlebotomine sand flies fauna in Parque Estadual do Rio Doce, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

PubMed

de Souza, Cristian Ferreira; Brazil, Reginaldo Peçanha; Bevilacqua, Paula Dias; Andrade Filho, Jose Dilermando

2015-12-02

Phlebotomine sand flies are dipterans of the family Psychodidae. They are very important to veterinary medicine because some species are vectors of infective forms of Leishmania spp., the etiological agents of leishmaniasis. The Parque Estadual do Rio Doce is located in an area with constant reports of cases of leishmaniasis. In order to better understanding the phlebotamine sand fly fauna of the park, the present work was undertaken with the goal of analyzing phlebotomine sand flies collected there, verifying their seasonality and correlating their presence with forest and/or anthropic areas. To analyze the fauna of phlebotomine sand flies, HP-type, model CDC light traps were distributed along the Juquita trail of PERD. Twelve traps were installed between September 2012 and February 2014, and captured specimens were identified to species. A total of 1993 phlebotomine sand flies of 30 species were captured. The most abundant species were Pressatia choti, Psychodopygus davisi and Nyssomyia intermedia. The high number of Nyssomyia intermedia captured drew attention because they are considered one of the vectors of the infective Leishmania braziliensis present at PERD. No seasonality was observed in the occurrence of phlebotomine sand flies captured at PERD. The number of captured specimens of vector species, and the distance of traps from the forest boarder, were negatively correlated, showing that these vectors (Nyssomyia intermedia, Nyssomyia whitmani and Migonemyia migonei) were less common inside the forest area and that attention should be drawn to other potential vector species in the forest. These results can contribute to leishmaniasis prevention strategies directed at the visitors and professionals at or near PERD. The finding of the presence of Leishmania vectors in the park area must be given attention, since disease transmission can threaten people who visit PERD and its surroundings. Therefore, information on the prevention of leishmaniasis needs to be provided to all people who go there.

The effects of advertisement location and familiarity on selective attention.

PubMed

Jessen, Tanja Lund; Rodway, Paul

2010-06-01

This study comprised two experiments to examine the distracting effects of advertisement familiarity, location, and onset on the performance of a selective attention task. In Exp. 1, familiar advertisements presented in peripheral vision disrupted selective attention when the attention task was more demanding, suggesting that the distracting effect of advertisements is a product of task demands and advertisement familiarity and location. In Exp. 2, the onset of the advertisement shortly before, or after, the attention task captured attention and disrupted attentional performance. The onset of the advertisement before the attention task reduced target response time without an increase in errors and therefore facilitated performance. Despite being instructed to ignore the advertisements, the participants were able to recall a substantial proportion of the familiar advertisements. Implications for the presentation of advertisements during human-computer interaction were discussed.

Simulating the Role of Visual Selective Attention during the Development of Perceptual Completion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schlesinger, Matthew; Amso, Dima; Johnson, Scott P.

2012-01-01

We recently proposed a multi-channel, image-filtering model for simulating the development of visual selective attention in young infants (Schlesinger, Amso & Johnson, 2007). The model not only captures the performance of 3-month-olds on a visual search task, but also implicates two cortical regions that may play a role in the development of…

Towards a Cognitive Model of Distraction by Auditory Novelty: The Role of Involuntary Attention Capture and Semantic Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parmentier, Fabrice B. R.

2008-01-01

Unexpected auditory stimuli are potent distractors, able to break through selective attention and disrupt performance in an unrelated visual task. This study examined the processing fate of novel sounds by examining the extent to which their semantic content is analyzed and whether the outcome of this processing can impact on subsequent behavior.…

Faces Do Not Capture Special Attention in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Change Blindness Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kikuchi, Yukiko; Senju, Atsushi; Tojo, Yoshikuni; Osanai, Hiroo; Hasegawa, Toshikazu

2009-01-01

Two experiments investigated attention of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to faces and objects. In both experiments, children (7- to 15-year-olds) detected the difference between 2 visual scenes. Results in Experiment 1 revealed that typically developing children (n = 16) detected the change in faces faster than in objects, whereas…

The Effect of Perceptual Load on Attention-Induced Motion Blindness: The Efficiency of Selective Inhibition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hay, Julia L.; Milders, Maarten M.; Sahraie, Arash; Niedeggen, Michael

2006-01-01

Recent visual marking studies have shown that the carry-over of distractor inhibition can impair the ability of singletons to capture attention if the singleton and distractors share features. The current study extends this finding to first-order motion targets and distractors, clearly separated in time by a visual cue (the letter X). Target…

Taking an Attention-Grabbing "Headlines First!" Approach to Engage Students in a Lecture Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, G. Keith; Stevenson, Clint; Joyner, Helen

2015-01-01

Let's face it. Traditional lectures do not consistently capture our students' attention, especially when they are PowerPoint-driven and lack student/instructor interaction. Most of us have had the unfortunate feeling that our students were not fully engaged in our lectures, despite hours of preparation on our part. This sense of "wasted"…

What Are Students Doing during Lecture? Evidence from New Technologies to Capture Student Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maltese, Adam V.; Danish, Joshua A.; Bouldin, Ryan M.; Harsh, Joseph A.; Bryan, Branden

2016-01-01

Engaging students in class is paramount if they are to gain a deep understanding of class content. Student engagement is manifested by attention to the various components of instruction. However, there is little research at the tertiary level focusing on what aspects of instruction are related to changes in student attention during class. To…

On the Temporal Relation of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Mechanisms during Guidance of Attention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wykowska, Agnieszka; Schubo, Anna

2010-01-01

Two mechanisms are said to be responsible for guiding focal attention in visual selection: bottom-up, saliency-driven capture and top-down control. These mechanisms were examined with a paradigm that combined a visual search task with postdisplay probe detection. Two SOAs between the search display and probe onsets were introduced to investigate…

Attention and memory benefits for physical attractiveness may mediate prosocial biases.

PubMed

Becker, David Vaughn

2017-01-01

Mating motivations can explain attractiveness benefits, but what proximate mechanisms might serve as efficient causes of these biases? There is growing evidence that visual cues of physical attractiveness capture attention and facilitate memory, enhancing salience in ways that could underlie, for example, preferring one job applicant over another. All of these effects beg deeper questions about the meaning of attractiveness.

Modeling Amorphous Microporous Polymers for CO2 Capture and Separations.

PubMed

Kupgan, Grit; Abbott, Lauren J; Hart, Kyle E; Colina, Coray M

2018-06-13

This review concentrates on the advances of atomistic molecular simulations to design and evaluate amorphous microporous polymeric materials for CO 2 capture and separations. A description of atomistic molecular simulations is provided, including simulation techniques, structural generation approaches, relaxation and equilibration methodologies, and considerations needed for validation of simulated samples. The review provides general guidelines and a comprehensive update of the recent literature (since 2007) to promote the acceleration of the discovery and screening of amorphous microporous polymers for CO 2 capture and separation processes.

College Students' Attention Behaviors during Independent Study and Course Level Academic Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wagner, Linda G.

2012-01-01

Students in college make daily choices about how to use their independent study time, including choices about allocation of attention. Based on theoretical considerations and clinical studies, attention and the dividing of attention through multitasking is thought to have a relationship to performance levels. Research is only beginning to explore,…

Response time scores on a reflexive attention task predict a child's inattention score from a parent report.

PubMed

Lundwall, Rebecca A; Sgro, Jordan F; Fanger, Julia

2018-01-01

Compared to sustained attention, only a small proportion of studies examine reflexive attention as a component of everyday attention. Understanding the significance of reflexive attention to everyday attention may inform better treatments for attentional disorders. Children from a general population (recruited when they were from 9-16 years old) completed an exogenously-cued task measuring the extent to which attention is captured by peripheral cue-target conditions. Parents completed a questionnaire reporting their child's day-to-day attention. A general linear model indicated that parent-rated inattention predicted the increase in response time over baseline when a bright cue preceded the target (whether it was valid or invalid) but not when a dim cue preceded the target. More attentive children had more pronounced response time increases from baseline. Our findings suggest a link between a basic measure of cognition (response time difference scores) and parent observations. The findings have implications for increased understanding of the role of reflexive attention in the everyday attention of children.

Use of models to map potential capture of surface water

USGS Publications Warehouse

Leake, Stanley A.

2006-01-01

The effects of ground-water withdrawals on surface-water resources and riparian vegetation have become important considerations in water-availability studies. Ground water withdrawn by a well initially comes from storage around the well, but with time can eventually increase inflow to the aquifer and (or) decrease natural outflow from the aquifer. This increased inflow and decreased outflow is referred to as “capture.” For a given time, capture can be expressed as a fraction of withdrawal rate that is accounted for as increased rates of inflow and decreased rates of outflow. The time frames over which capture might occur at different locations commonly are not well understood by resource managers. A ground-water model, however, can be used to map potential capture for areas and times of interest. The maps can help managers visualize the possible timing of capture over large regions. The first step in the procedure to map potential capture is to run a ground-water model in steady-state mode without withdrawals to establish baseline total flow rates at all sources and sinks. The next step is to select a time frame and appropriate withdrawal rate for computing capture. For regional aquifers, time frames of decades to centuries may be appropriate. The model is then run repeatedly in transient mode, each run with one well in a different model cell in an area of interest. Differences in inflow and outflow rates from the baseline conditions for each model run are computed and saved. The differences in individual components are summed and divided by the withdrawal rate to obtain a single capture fraction for each cell. Values are contoured to depict capture fractions for the time of interest. Considerations in carrying out the analysis include use of realistic physical boundaries in the model, understanding the degree of linearity of the model, selection of an appropriate time frame and withdrawal rate, and minimizing error in the global mass balance of the model.

Magnocellular Bias in Exogenous Attention to Biologically Salient Stimuli as Revealed by Manipulating Their Luminosity and Color.

PubMed

Carretié, Luis; Kessel, Dominique; García-Rubio, María J; Giménez-Fernández, Tamara; Hoyos, Sandra; Hernández-Lorca, María

2017-10-01

Exogenous attention is a set of mechanisms that allow us to detect and reorient toward salient events-such as appetitive or aversive-that appear out of the current focus of attention. The nature of these mechanisms, particularly the involvement of the parvocellular and magnocellular visual processing systems, was explored. Thirty-four participants performed a demanding digit categorization task while salient (spiders or S) and neutral (wheels or W) stimuli were presented as distractors under two figure-ground formats: heterochromatic/isoluminant (exclusively processed by the parvocellular system, Par trials) and isochromatic/heteroluminant (preferentially processed by the magnocellular system, Mag trials). This resulted in four conditions: SPar, SMag, WPar, and WMag. Behavioral (RTs and error rates in the task) and electrophysiological (ERPs) indices of exogenous attention were analyzed. Behavior showed greater attentional capture by SMag than by SPar distractors and enhanced modulation of SMag capture as fear of spiders reported by participants increased. ERPs reflected a sequence from magnocellular dominant (P1p, ≃120 msec) to both magnocellular and parvocellular processing (N2p and P2a, ≃200 msec). Importantly, amplitudes in one N2p subcomponent were greater to SMag than to SPar and WMag distractors, indicating greater magnocellular sensitivity to saliency. Taking together, results support a magnocellular bias in exogenous attention toward distractors of any nature during initial processing, a bias that remains in later stages when biologically salient distractors are present.

An electrophysiological dissociation of craving and stimulus-dependent attentional capture in smokers.

PubMed

Donohue, Sarah E; Woldorff, Marty G; Hopf, Jens-Max; Harris, Joseph A; Heinze, Hans-Jochen; Schoenfeld, Mircea A

2016-12-01

It has been suggested that over the course of an addiction, addiction-related stimuli become highly salient in the environment, thereby capturing an addict's attention. To assess these effects neurally in smokers, and how they interact with craving, we recorded electroencephalography (EEG) in two sessions: one in which participants had just smoked (non-craving), and one in which they had abstained from smoking for 3 h (craving). In both sessions, participants performed a visual-search task in which two colored squares were presented to the left and right of fixation, with one color being the target to which they should shift attention and discriminate the locations of two missing corners. Task-irrelevant images, both smoking-related and non-smoking-related, were embedded in both squares, enabling the shift of spatial attention to the target to be examined as a function of the addiction-related image being present or absent in the target, the distractor, or both. Behaviorally, participants were slower to respond to targets containing a smoking-related image. Furthermore, when the target contained a smoking-related image, the neural responses indicated that attention had been shifted less strongly to the target; when the distractor contained a smoking-related image, the shift of attention to the contralateral target was stronger. These effects occurred independently of craving and suggest that participants were actively avoiding the smoking-related images. Together, these results provide an electrophysiological dissociation between addiction-related visual-stimulus processing and the neural activity associated with craving.

Maintenance rehearsal: the key to the role attention plays in storage and forgetting.

PubMed

McFarlane, Kimberley A; Humphreys, Michael S

2012-07-01

Research with the maintenance-rehearsal paradigm, in which word pairs are rehearsed as distractor material during a series of digit recall trials, has previously indicated that low frequency and new word pairs capture attention to a greater degree than high frequency and old word pairs. This impacts delayed recognition of the pairs and interferes with immediate digit recall. The effect on immediate digit recall may provide the missing converging evidence for the role of attention in memory. In the current study, 3 experiments were conducted to further investigate the role of attention capture and novelty in storage and forgetting. In addition to the previously established effects, the novelty of switching rehearsal between 2 pairs was found to impair both digit recall and memory for the first pair. The attentional effects we obtained were dependent upon participant expectation, and forgetting appears to be due to interference with consolidation rather than decay or traditional associative interference. Finally, the attentional effects we observed in associative recognition were primarily reflected in a lowering of the false alarm rate with increases in the strength of the parent pairs. Although dual-process models can accommodate this finding on the assumption that recollection is invoked at test alongside familiarity, we showed that the level of recall in this paradigm is so small that recollection can be ruled out. Accordingly, our results are challenging for the existing models of associative recognition to accommodate. 2012 APA, all rights reserved

Indications and Warning Analysis Management System IWAMS. A Design Study

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-03-01

First, we must understand the process of warning analysis; we must develop an -;adequate functional model. In the present research we have divided ...and changeable). (In subsequent discussions, considerable attention will be focused on these issues.) -77-7-12Z ’m,77+-U 21 WARNING ANALYSIS MODEL...have charted limitations in man’s memory, attention span, reasoning capability and other cognitive functions. These limitations considerably affect man’s

Empathy, Pain and Attention: Cues that Predict Pain Stimulation to the Partner and the Self Capture Visual Attention

PubMed Central

Wu, Lingdan; Kirmse, Ursula; Flaisch, Tobias; Boiandina, Ganna; Kenter, Anna; Schupp, Harald T.

2017-01-01

Empathy motivates helping and cooperative behaviors and plays an important role in social interactions and personal communication. The present research examined the hypothesis that a state of empathy guides attention towards stimuli significant to others in a similar way as to stimuli relevant to the self. Sixteen couples in romantic partnerships were examined in a pain-related empathy paradigm including an anticipation phase and a stimulation phase. Abstract visual symbols (i.e., arrows and flashes) signaled the delivery of a Pain or Nopain stimulus to the partner or the self while dense sensor event-related potentials (ERPs) were simultaneously recorded from both persons. During the anticipation phase, stimuli predicting Pain compared to Nopain stimuli to the partner elicited a larger early posterior negativity (EPN) and late positive potential (LPP), which were similar in topography and latency to the EPN and LPP modulations elicited by stimuli signaling pain for the self. Noteworthy, using abstract cue symbols to cue Pain and Nopain stimuli suggests that these effects are not driven by perceptual features. The findings demonstrate that symbolic stimuli relevant for the partner capture attention, which implies a state of empathy to the pain of the partner. From a broader perspective, states of empathy appear to regulate attention processing according to the perceived needs and goals of the partner. PMID:28979199

Phobic spider fear is associated with enhanced attentional capture by spider pictures: a rapid serial presentation event-related potential study.

PubMed

Van Strien, Jan W; Franken, Ingmar H A; Huijding, Jorg

2009-03-04

The early posterior negativity (EPN) reflects early selective visual processing of emotionally significant information. This study explored the association between fear of spiders and the EPN for spider pictures. Fifty women completed a Spider Phobia Questionnaire and watched the random rapid serial presentation of 600 neutral, 600 negatively valenced emotional, and 600 spider pictures (three pictures per second). The EPN was scored as the mean activity in the 225-300-ms time window at lateral occipital electrodes. Participants with higher scores on the phobia questionnaire showed larger (i.e. more negative) EPN amplitudes in response to spider pictures. The results suggest that the attentional capture of spider-related stimuli is an automatic response, which is modulated by the extent of spider fear.

Conflict resolved: On the role of spatial attention in reading and color naming tasks.

PubMed

Robidoux, Serje; Besner, Derek

2015-12-01

The debate about whether or not visual word recognition requires spatial attention has been marked by a conflict: the results from different tasks yield different conclusions. Experiments in which the primary task is reading based show no evidence that unattended words are processed, whereas when the primary task is color identification, supposedly unattended words do affect processing. However, the color stimuli used to date does not appear to demand as much spatial attention as explicit word reading tasks. We first identify a color stimulus that requires as much spatial attention to identify as does a word. We then demonstrate that when spatial attention is appropriately captured, distractor words in unattended locations do not affect color identification. We conclude that there is no word identification without spatial attention.

Drivers anticipate lead-vehicle conflicts during automated longitudinal control: Sensory cues capture driver attention and promote appropriate and timely responses.

PubMed

Morando, Alberto; Victor, Trent; Dozza, Marco

2016-12-01

Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) has been shown to reduce the exposure to critical situations by maintaining a safe speed and headway. It has also been shown that drivers adapt their visual behavior in response to the driving task demand with ACC, anticipating an impending lead vehicle conflict by directing their eyes to the forward path before a situation becomes critical. The purpose of this paper is to identify the causes related to this anticipatory mechanism, by investigating drivers' visual behavior while driving with ACC when a potential critical situation is encountered, identified as a forward collision warning (FCW) onset (including false positive warnings). This paper discusses how sensory cues capture attention to the forward path in anticipation of the FCW onset. The analysis used the naturalistic database EuroFOT to examine visual behavior with respect to two manually-coded metrics, glance location and glance eccentricity, and then related the findings to vehicle data (such as speed, acceleration, and radar information). Three sensory cues (longitudinal deceleration, looming, and brake lights) were found to be relevant for capturing driver attention and increase glances to the forward path in anticipation of the threat; the deceleration cue seems to be dominant. The results also show that the FCW acts as an effective attention-orienting mechanism when no threat anticipation is present. These findings, relevant to the study of automation, provide additional information about drivers' response to potential lead-vehicle conflicts when longitudinal control is automated. Moreover, these results suggest that sensory cues are important for alerting drivers to an impending critical situation, allowing for a prompt reaction. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of aging and involuntary capture of attention on event-related potentials associated with the processing of and the response to a target stimulus

PubMed Central

Cid-Fernández, Susana; Lindín, Mónica; Díaz, Fernando

2014-01-01

The main aim of the present study was to assess whether aging modulates the effects of involuntary capture of attention by novel stimuli on performance, and on event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with target processing (N2b and P3b) and subsequent response processes (stimulus-locked Lateralized Readiness Potential -sLRP- and response-locked Lateralized Readiness Potential -rLRP-). An auditory-visual distraction-attention task was performed by 77 healthy participants, divided into three age groups (Young: 21–29, Middle-aged: 51–64, Old: 65–84 years old). Participants were asked to attend to visual stimuli and to ignore auditory stimuli. Aging was associated with slowed reaction times, target stimulus processing in working memory (WM, longer N2b and P3b latencies) and selection and preparation of the motor response (longer sLRP and earlier rLRP onset latencies). In the novel relative to the standard condition we observed, in the three age groups: (1) a distraction effect, reflected in a slowing of reaction times, of stimuli categorization in WM (longer P3b latency), and of motor response selection (longer sLRP onset latency); (2) a facilitation effect on response preparation (later rLRP onset latency), and (3) an increase in arousal (larger amplitudes of all ERPs evaluated, except for N2b amplitude in the Old group). A distraction effect on the stimulus evaluation processes (longer N2b latency) were also observed, but only in middle-aged and old participants, indicating that the attentional capture slows the stimulus evaluation in WM from early ages (from 50 years onwards, without differences between middle-age and older adults), but not in young adults. PMID:25294999

Oculomotor guidance and capture by irrelevant faces.

PubMed

Devue, Christel; Belopolsky, Artem V; Theeuwes, Jan

2012-01-01

Even though it is generally agreed that face stimuli constitute a special class of stimuli, which are treated preferentially by our visual system, it remains unclear whether faces can capture attention in a stimulus-driven manner. Moreover, there is a long-standing debate regarding the mechanism underlying the preferential bias of selecting faces. Some claim that faces constitute a set of special low-level features to which our visual system is tuned; others claim that the visual system is capable of extracting the meaning of faces very rapidly, driving attentional selection. Those debates continue because many studies contain methodological peculiarities and manipulations that prevent a definitive conclusion. Here, we present a new visual search task in which observers had to make a saccade to a uniquely colored circle while completely irrelevant objects were also present in the visual field. The results indicate that faces capture and guide the eyes more than other animated objects and that our visual system is not only tuned to the low-level features that make up a face but also to its meaning.

A unique role of endogenous visual-spatial attention in rapid processing of multiple targets

PubMed Central

Guzman, Emmanuel; Grabowecky, Marcia; Palafox, German; Suzuki, Satoru

2012-01-01

Visual spatial attention can be exogenously captured by a salient stimulus or can be endogenously allocated by voluntary effort. Whether these two attention modes serve distinctive functions is debated, but for processing of single targets the literature suggests superiority of exogenous attention (it is faster acting and serves more functions). We report that endogenous attention uniquely contributes to processing of multiple targets. For speeded visual discrimination, response times are faster for multiple redundant targets than for single targets due to probability summation and/or signal integration. This redundancy gain was unaffected when attention was exogenously diverted from the targets, but was completely eliminated when attention was endogenously diverted. This was not due to weaker manipulation of exogenous attention because our exogenous and endogenous cues similarly affected overall response times. Thus, whereas exogenous attention is superior for processing single targets, endogenous attention plays a unique role in allocating resources crucial for rapid concurrent processing of multiple targets. PMID:21517209

Top-down search for color prevents voluntary directing of attention to informative singleton cues.

PubMed

Worschech, Franziska; Ansorge, Ulrich

2012-01-01

Visuo-spatial attention can be directed in a top-down controlled way to search for color targets and it can be captured by color contrasts, regardless of color identity. Here we tested whether participants can both search for a particular color target (e.g., red) and make use of a color-contrast cue that predicted the target's most likely position to direct their attention voluntarily. Our results show that this was impossible for the participants. Results support that top-down search for particular colors is incommensurate with directing attention to just any color contrast. The results are discussed in light of the current debates concerning the roles of color and color contrast for visuo-spatial attention.

Automated rendezvous and capture development infrastructure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bryan, Thomas C.; Roe, Fred; Coker, Cynthia

1992-01-01

The facilities at Marshall Space Flight Center and JSC to be utilized to develop and test an autonomous rendezvous and capture (ARC) system are described. This includes equipment and personnel facility capabilities to devise, develop, qualify, and integrate ARC elements and subsystems into flight programs. Attention is given to the use of a LEO test facility, the current concept and unique system elements of the ARC, and the options available to develop ARC technology.

Burden of illness and health care resource utilization in adult psychiatric outpatients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in Europe.

PubMed

Karlsdotter, Kristina; Bushe, Chris; Hakkaart, L; Sobanski, Esther; Kan, C C; Lebrec, Jeremie; Kraemer, Susanne; Dieteren, Nicole A H M; Deberdt, Walter

2016-09-01

To assess the burden of illness and health care resource utilization of adult nonpsychotic psychiatric outpatients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Europe. This was a multicountry, cross-sectional, observational study where unselected routine patients from clinical psychiatric outpatient settings were screened and assessed for ADHD. Patients were evaluated using the Clinical Global Impressions of Severity (CGI-S) scale, the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS), and the EuroQol-5 Dimensions questionnaire. Data on comorbidities, functional impairment, and health care resource utilization were captured. The study enrolled 2284 patients, of whom 1986 completed the study. The prevalence of ADHD was 17.4%, of whom 46.0% had a previous ADHD diagnosis. Patients with ADHD had a high clinical burden with psychiatric comorbidities, especially depression (43.0%) and anxiety disorders (36.4%). Substance abuse (9.2% vs. 3.4%) and alcohol abuse (10.3% vs. 5.2%) were more common in the ADHD cohort vs. the non-ADHD cohort. Only 11.5% of the patients with ADHD had no other psychiatric disorder. Various measures indicated a significantly poorer level of functioning for patients with ADHD than without ADHD, as indicated by higher scores for CGI-S (3.8 vs. 3.3) and SDS (18.9 vs. 11.6) and higher percentages of debt (35.5% vs. 24.3%) and criminality (13.8% vs. 6.1%). Lastly, the health care resource utilization was considerable and similar between adult psychiatric outpatients diagnosed and not diagnosed with ADHD. Although care was taken when choosing the sites for this study, to make it representative of the general outpatient adult psychiatric population, caution should be advised in generalizing the findings of our study to the general ADHD or psychiatric outpatient population. This was an observational study, thus no inference on causality can be drawn. Having ADHD imposes a considerable health and social burden on patient and health care resource utilization comparable to other chronic psychiatric disorders.

Expanding Health Technology Assessments to Include Effects on the Environment.

PubMed

Marsh, Kevin; Ganz, Michael L; Hsu, John; Strandberg-Larsen, Martin; Gonzalez, Raquel Palomino; Lund, Niels

2016-01-01

There is growing awareness of the impact of human activity on the climate and the need to stem this impact. Public health care decision makers from Sweden and the United Kingdom have started examining environmental impacts when assessing new technologies. This article considers the case for incorporating environmental impacts into the health technology assessment (HTA) process and discusses the associated challenges. Two arguments favor incorporating environmental impacts into HTA: 1) environmental changes could directly affect people's health and 2) policy decision makers have broad mandates and objectives extending beyond health care. Two types of challenges hinder this process. First, the nascent evidence base is insufficient to support the accurate comparison of technologies' environmental impacts. Second, cost-utility analysis, which is favored by many HTA agencies, could capture some of the value of environmental impacts, especially those generating health impacts, but might not be suitable for addressing broader concerns. Both cost-benefit and multicriteria decision analyses are potential methods for evaluating health and environmental outcomes, but are less familiar to health care decision makers. Health care is an important and sizable sector of the economy that could warrant closer policy attention to its impact on the environment. Considerable work is needed to track decision makers' demands, augment the environmental evidence base, and develop robust methods for capturing and incorporating environmental data as part of HTA. Copyright © 2016 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Emotional event-related potentials are larger to figures than scenes but are similarly reduced by inattention

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background In research on event-related potentials (ERP) to emotional pictures, greater attention to emotional than neutral stimuli (i.e., motivated attention) is commonly indexed by two difference waves between emotional and neutral stimuli: the early posterior negativity (EPN) and the late positive potential (LPP). Evidence suggests that if attention is directed away from the pictures, then the emotional effects on EPN and LPP are eliminated. However, a few studies have found residual, emotional effects on EPN and LPP. In these studies, pictures were shown at fixation, and picture composition was that of simple figures rather than that of complex scenes. Because figures elicit larger LPP than do scenes, figures might capture and hold attention more strongly than do scenes. Here, we showed negative and neutral pictures of figures and scenes and tested first, whether emotional effects are larger to figures than scenes for both EPN and LPP, and second, whether emotional effects on EPN and LPP are reduced less for unattended figures than scenes. Results Emotional effects on EPN and LPP were larger for figures than scenes. When pictures were unattended, emotional effects on EPN increased for scenes but tended to decrease for figures, whereas emotional effects on LPP decreased similarly for figures and scenes. Conclusions Emotional effects on EPN and LPP were larger for figures than scenes, but these effects did not resist manipulations of attention more strongly for figures than scenes. These findings imply that the emotional content captures attention more strongly for figures than scenes, but that the emotional content does not hold attention more strongly for figures than scenes. PMID:22607397

Systemic risk measures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guerra, Solange Maria; Silva, Thiago Christiano; Tabak, Benjamin Miranda; de Souza Penaloza, Rodrigo Andrés; de Castro Miranda, Rodrigo César

2016-01-01

In this paper we present systemic risk measures based on contingent claims approach and banking sector multivariate density. We also apply network measures to analyze bank common risk exposure. The proposed measures aim to capture credit risk stress and its potential to become systemic. These indicators capture not only individual bank vulnerability, but also the stress dependency structure between them. Furthermore, these measures can be quite useful for identifying systemically important banks. The empirical results show that these indicators capture with considerable fidelity the moments of increasing systemic risk in the Brazilian banking sector in recent years.

What is abnormal about addiction-related attentional biases?

PubMed

Anderson, Brian A

2016-10-01

The phenotype of addiction includes prominent attentional biases for drug cues, which play a role in motivating drug-seeking behavior and contribute to relapse. In a separate line of research, arbitrary stimuli have been shown to automatically capture attention when previously associated with reward in non-clinical samples. Here, I argue that these two attentional biases reflect the same cognitive process. I outline five characteristics that exemplify attentional biases for drug cues: resistant to conflicting goals, robust to extinction, linked to dorsal striatal dopamine and to biases in approach behavior, and can distinguish between individuals with and without a history of drug dependence. I then go on to describe how attentional biases for arbitrary reward-associated stimuli share all of these features, and conclude by arguing that the attentional components of addiction reflect a normal cognitive process that promotes reward-seeking behavior. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Attention maintains mental extrapolation of target position: irrelevant distractors eliminate forward displacement after implied motion.

PubMed

Kerzel, Dirk

2003-05-01

Observers' judgments of the final position of a moving target are typically shifted in the direction of implied motion ("representational momentum"). The role of attention is unclear: visual attention may be necessary to maintain or halt target displacement. When attention was captured by irrelevant distractors presented during the retention interval, forward displacement after implied target motion disappeared, suggesting that attention may be necessary to maintain mental extrapolation of target motion. In a further corroborative experiment, the deployment of attention was measured after a sequence of implied motion, and faster responses were observed to stimuli appearing in the direction of motion. Thus, attention may guide the mental extrapolation of target motion. Additionally, eye movements were measured during stimulus presentation and retention interval. The results showed that forward displacement with implied motion does not depend on eye movements. Differences between implied and smooth motion are discussed with respect to recent neurophysiological findings.

The effects of taboo-related distraction on driving performance.

PubMed

Chan, Michelle; Madan, Christopher R; Singhal, Anthony

2016-07-01

Roadside billboards containing negative and positive emotional content have been shown to influence driving performance, however, the impact of highly arousing taboo information is unknown. Taboo information more reliably evokes emotional arousal and can lead to greater attentional capture due to its inherent 'shock value.' The objective of the present study was to examine driver distraction associated with four types of information presented on roadside billboards: highly arousing taboo words, moderately arousing positive and negative words, and non-arousing neutral words. Participants viewed blocks of taboo, positive, negative and neutral words presented on roadside billboards while operating a driving simulator. They also responded to target (household-related) words by pressing a button on the steering wheel. At the end of the session, a surprise recall task was completed for all the words they saw while driving. Results showed that taboo words captured the most attention as revealed by better memory recall compared to all the other word types. Interestingly, taboo words were associated with better lane control compared to the other word types. We suggest that taboo-related arousal can enhance attentional focus during a complex task like simulated driving. That is, in a highly arousing situation, attention is selectively narrowed to the road ahead, resulting in better lane control. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The effect of age on involuntary capture of attention by irrelevant sounds: a test of the frontal hypothesis of aging.

PubMed

Andrés, Pilar; Parmentier, Fabrice B R; Escera, Carles

2006-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of aging on the involuntary capture of attention by irrelevant sounds (distraction) and the use of these sounds as warning cues (alertness) in an oddball paradigm. We compared the performance of older and younger participants on a well-characterized auditory-visual distraction task. Based on the dissociations observed in aging between attentional processes sustained by the anterior and posterior attentional networks, our prediction was that distraction by irrelevant novel sounds would be stronger in older adults than in young adults while both groups would be equally able to use sound as an alert to prepare for upcoming stimuli. The results confirmed both predictions: there was a larger distraction effect in the older participants, but the alert effect was equivalent in both groups. These results give support to the frontal hypothesis of aging [Raz, N. (2000). Aging of the brain and its impact on cognitive performance: integration of structural and functional finding. In F.I.M. Craik & T.A. Salthouse (Eds.) Handbook of aging and cognition (pp. 1-90). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum; West, R. (1996). An application of prefrontal cortex function theory to cognitive aging. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 272-292].

Dangerous animals capture and maintain attention in humans.

PubMed

Yorzinski, Jessica L; Penkunas, Michael J; Platt, Michael L; Coss, Richard G

2014-05-28

Predation is a major source of natural selection on primates and may have shaped attentional processes that allow primates to rapidly detect dangerous animals. Because ancestral humans were subjected to predation, a process that continues at very low frequencies, we examined the visual processes by which men and women detect dangerous animals (snakes and lions). We recorded the eye movements of participants as they detected images of a dangerous animal (target) among arrays of nondangerous animals (distractors) as well as detected images of a nondangerous animal (target) among arrays of dangerous animals (distractors). We found that participants were quicker to locate targets when the targets were dangerous animals compared with nondangerous animals, even when spatial frequency and luminance were controlled. The participants were slower to locate nondangerous targets because they spent more time looking at dangerous distractors, a process known as delayed disengagement, and looked at a larger number of dangerous distractors. These results indicate that dangerous animals capture and maintain attention in humans, suggesting that historical predation has shaped some facets of visual orienting and its underlying neural architecture in modern humans.

[Interpersonal attention management inventory: a new instrument to capture different self- and external perception skills].

PubMed

Blaser, Klaus; Zlabinger, Milena; Hinterberger, Thilo

2014-01-01

The Interpersonal Attention Management Inventory (IAMI) represents a new instrument to capture self- and external perception skills. The underlying theoretical model assumes 3 mental locations of attention (the intrapersonal space, the extrapersonal space, and the external intrapersonal space) of the other. The IAMI was studied regarding its factor structure; it was shortened and statistical values as well as first reference values were calculated based on a larger sample (n = 1089). By factor analysis, the superordinate scales could be widely validated. The shortened version with 31 items and 3 superordinate scales shows a high reliability of the global value (Cronbach's α = 0.81) and, regarding the convergent validity, a modest correlation (r = 0.41) of the global value and mindfulness, measured with the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI). Further validation studies are invited so that the IAMI can be used as an instrument for (course) diagnosis in the therapy of psychiatric disorders as well as for research in social neuroscience, e.g., in investigations on mindfulness, compassion, empathy, theory of mind, and self-boundaries.

Do pictures of faces, and which ones, capture attention in the inattentional-blindness paradigm?

PubMed

Devue, Christel; Laloyaux, Cédric; Feyers, Dorothée; Theeuwes, Jan; Brédart, Serge

2009-01-01

Faces and self-referential material (eg one's own name) are more likely to capture attention in the inattentional-blindness (IB) paradigm than other stimuli. This effect is presumably due to the meaning of these stimuli rather than to their familiarity [Mack and Rock, 1998 Inattentional Blindness (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press)]. In previous work, IB has been investigated mostly with schematic stimuli. In the present study, the generalisability of this finding was tested with photographic stimuli. In support of the view that faces constitute a special category of stimuli, pictures of faces were found to resist more to IB than pictures of common objects (experiment 1) or than pictures of inverted faces (experiment 2). In a third experiment, the influence of face familiarity and identity (the participant's own face, a friend's face, and an unknown face) on IB rates was evaluated. Unexpectedly, no differential resistence to blindness across these three kinds of faces was found. In conclusion, pictures of faces attracted attention more than pictures of objects or inverted faces in the IB paradigm. However, this effect was not dependent on face familiarity or identity.

Unintentional Activation of Translation Equivalents in Bilinguals Leads to Attention Capture in a Cross-Modal Visual Task

PubMed Central

Singh, Niharika; Mishra, Ramesh Kumar

2015-01-01

Using a variant of the visual world eye tracking paradigm, we examined if language non- selective activation of translation equivalents leads to attention capture and distraction in a visual task in bilinguals. High and low proficient Hindi-English speaking bilinguals were instructed to programme a saccade towards a line drawing which changed colour among other distractor objects. A spoken word, irrelevant to the main task, was presented before the colour change. On critical trials, one of the line drawings was a phonologically related word of the translation equivalent of the spoken word. Results showed that saccade latency was significantly higher towards the target in the presence of this cross-linguistic translation competitor compared to when the display contained completely unrelated objects. Participants were also slower when the display contained the referent of the spoken word among the distractors. However, the bilingual groups did not differ with regard to the interference effect observed. These findings suggest that spoken words activates translation equivalent which bias attention leading to interference in goal directed action in the visual domain. PMID:25775184

How Can We Second-Guess Attention in the Classroom; A Physiological Answer.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fletcher, James E.

In preparing instructional materials, consideration must be given to the students' attention. Carl Hagfors has conducted a number of experiments measuring the electrodermal response simultaneously from a number of subjects viewing the same materials. When most subjects were attentive there was a large discursion of the recorder pen. When some were…

Enhancing Academic Achievement for Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Evidence from School-Based Intervention Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jitendra, Asha K.; DuPaul, George J.; Someki, Fumio; Tresco, Katy E.

2008-01-01

Although children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) exhibit significant academic difficulties in school settings, considerably less attention is devoted to remediating their academic problems when compared to behavioral and social difficulties. The purpose of this article is to review empirically supported academic interventions…

Multi-objective Extremum Seeking Control for Enhancement of Wind Turbine Power Capture with Load Reduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiao, Yan; Li, Yaoyu; Rotea, Mario A.

2016-09-01

The primary objective in below rated wind speed (Region 2) is to maximize the turbine's energy capture. Due to uncertainty, variability of turbine characteristics and lack of inexpensive but precise wind measurements, model-free control strategies that do not use wind measurements such as Extremum Seeking Control (ESC) have received significant attention. Based on a dither-demodulation scheme, ESC can maximize the wind power capture in real time despite uncertainty, variabilities and lack of accurate wind measurements. The existing work on ESC based wind turbine control focuses on power capture only. In this paper, a multi-objective extremum seeking control strategy is proposed to achieve nearly optimum wind energy capture while decreasing structural fatigue loads. The performance index of the ESC combines the rotor power and penalty terms of the standard deviations of selected fatigue load variables. Simulation studies of the proposed multi-objective ESC demonstrate that the damage-equivalent loads of tower and/or blade loads can be reduced with slight compromise in energy capture.

Value-modulated oculomotor capture by task-irrelevant stimuli is a consequence of early competition on the saccade map.

PubMed

Pearson, Daniel; Osborn, Raphaella; Whitford, Thomas J; Failing, Michel; Theeuwes, Jan; Le Pelley, Mike E

2016-10-01

Recent research has shown that reward learning can modulate oculomotor and attentional capture by physically salient and task-irrelevant distractor stimuli, even when directing gaze to those stimuli is directly counterproductive to receiving reward. This value-modulated oculomotor capture effect may reflect biased competition in the oculomotor system, such that the relationship between a stimulus feature and reward enhances that feature's representation on an internal priority map. However, it is also possible that this effect is a result of reward reducing the threshold for a saccade to be made to salient items. Here, we demonstrate value-modulated oculomotor capture when two reward-associated distractor stimuli are presented simultaneously in the same search display. The influence of reward on oculomotor capture is found to be most prominent at the shortest saccade latencies. We conclude that the value-modulated oculomotor capture effect is a consequence of biased competition on the saccade priority map and cannot be explained by a general reduction in saccadic threshold.

Managing TIAA-CREF Contracts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bastable, C. W.; Brady, Gerald P.

1976-01-01

Complexities in managing TIAA-CREF contracts are reviewed. Attention is directed toward participation, period considerations, selection of retirement age, retirement income transition, estate considerations and beneficiaries, voluntary additional contributions, and supplemental retirement annuity contracts. (LBH)

Methodology for evaluation of railroad technology research projects

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1981-04-01

This Project memorandum presents a methodology for evaluating railroad research projects. The methodology includes consideration of industry and societal benefits, with special attention given to technical risks, implementation considerations, and po...

Hubble Space Telescope Design Engineering Knowledgebase (HSTDEK)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johannes, James D.; Everetts, Clark

1989-01-01

The research covered here pays specific attention to the development of tools to assist knowledge engineers in acquiring knowledge and to assist other technical, engineering, and management personnel in automatically performing knowledge capture as part of their everyday work without adding any extra work to what they already do. Requirements for data products, the knowledge base, and methods for mapping knowledge in the documents onto the knowledge representations are discussed, as are some of the difficulties of capturing in the knowledge base the structure of the design process itself, along with a model of the system designed. The capture of knowledge describing the interactions of different components is also discussed briefly.

Attention is captured by distractors that uniquely correspond to controlled objects: an analysis of movement trajectories.

PubMed

Miles, James D; Proctor, Robert W

2015-04-01

When reaching for a particular target, movements tend to deviate toward distractors. Previously, we have shown that cursor movements deviate to a greater degree toward distractors when the distractor color corresponds to that of the cursor and the target color does not, even when this relationship is task-irrelevant (Miles & Proctor, 2011). In the present study, we investigated whether this correspondence effect is due to attention capture or to the activation of responses based on the task response rules associated with the colors of the distractor and target (viz. a flanker effect). Participants moved a central rectangular cursor to an upper left or upper right location, depending on the cursor color. The colors of the target (correct response side) and distractor (incorrect response side) were independent from one another and were either corresponding or noncorresponding with respect to the cursor color. In Experiment 1, reaction times were delayed when the distractor color corresponded to that of the cursor, but only when the target color did not correspond to the cursor color. No color correspondence effect was found for movement trajectories or movement times. However, in Experiment 2, when responses were time-pressured, initial movements toward the distractor were much more common when the distractor color exclusively corresponded to the cursor color. On the basis of these results, we argue that attention capture best explains the increased tendency to move a controlled object to a distractor that uniquely shares its features.

Sequestering CO2 in the Ocean: Options and Consequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rau, G. H.; Caldeira, K.

2002-12-01

The likelihood of negative climate and environmental impacts associated with increasing atmospheric CO2 has prompted serious consideration of various CO2 mitigation strategies. Among these are methods of capturing and storing of CO2 in the ocean. Two approaches that have received the most attention in this regard have been i) ocean fertilization to enhanced biological uptake and fixation of CO2, and ii) the chemical/mechanical capture and injection of CO2 into the deep ocean. Both methods seek to enhance or speed up natural mechanisms of CO2 uptake and storage by the ocean, namely i) the biological CO2 "pump" or ii) the passive diffusion of CO2 into the surface ocean and subsequent mixing into the deep sea. However, as will be reviewed, concerns about the capacity and effectiveness of either strategy in long-term CO2 sequestration have been raised. Both methods are not without potentially significant environmental impacts, and the costs of CO2 capture and injection (option ii) are currently prohibitive. An alternate method of ocean CO2 sequestration would be to react and hydrate CO2 rich waste gases (e.g., power plant flue gas) with seawater and to subsequently neutralize the resulting carbonic acid with limestone to produce calcium and bicarbonate ions in solution. This approach would simply speed up the CO2 uptake and sequestration that naturally (but very slowly) occurs via global carbonate weathering. This would avoid much of the increased acidity associated with direct CO2 injection while obviating the need for costly CO2 separation and capture. The addition of the resulting bicarbonate- and carbonate-rich solution to the ocean would help to counter the decrease in pH and carbonate ion concentration, and hence loss of biological calcification that is presently occurring as anthropogenic CO2 invades the ocean from the atmosphere. However, as with any approach to CO2 mitigation, the costs, impacts, risks, and benefits of this method need to be better understood and weighed against those of alternative strategies, including business as usual.

An Investigation of High-Order Shock-Capturing Methods for Computational Aeroacoustics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Casper, Jay; Baysal, Oktay

1997-01-01

Topics covered include: Low-dispersion scheme for nonlinear acoustic waves in nonuniform flow; Computation of acoustic scattering by a low-dispersion scheme; Algorithmic extension of low-dispersion scheme and modeling effects for acoustic wave simulation; The accuracy of shock capturing in two spatial dimensions; Using high-order methods on lower-order geometries; and Computational considerations for the simulation of discontinuous flows.

Letter to the editor concerning the article "Performance of gymnastics skill benefits from an external focus of attention" by Abdollahipour, Wulf, Psotta & Nieto (2015).

PubMed

Collins, Dave; Carson, Howie J; Toner, John

2016-01-01

Abdollahipour, Wulf, Psotta, and Nieto (2015) recently published data in the Journal of Sports Sciences to show that an external focus of attention promotes superior performance effects (gymnastics jump height and judged movement form score) when compared to internal or control foci during skill execution without an implement involved. While we do not contest the veracity of findings reported, nor others that have been used to support beneficial effects of an external focus of attention, in this Letter to the Editor we comment on considerable methodological limitations associated with this and previous studies that, we suggest, have resulted in serious theoretical oversights regarding the control of movement and, most crucially from our practitioner perspective, suboptimal recommendations for applied coaching practice. Specifically, we discuss the lack of consideration towards translational research in this area, the problematic nature of attentional focus cues employed, interpretation of findings in relation to other applied recommendations and coherence with mechanistic underpinning and, finally, the representative nature of task involved. In summary, while (laboratory) research evidence may appear to be conclusive, we suggest that the focus of attention effects are in need of more ecologically valid and rigorous testing as well as consideration of current coaching practices if it is to optimally serve the applied sporting domain that it purportedly aims to.

Oculomotor capture during real-world scene viewing depends on cognitive load.

PubMed

Matsukura, Michi; Brockmole, James R; Boot, Walter R; Henderson, John M

2011-03-25

It has been claimed that gaze control during scene viewing is largely governed by stimulus-driven, bottom-up selection mechanisms. Recent research, however, has strongly suggested that observers' top-down control plays a dominant role in attentional prioritization in scenes. A notable exception to this strong top-down control is oculomotor capture, where visual transients in a scene draw the eyes. One way to test whether oculomotor capture during scene viewing is independent of an observer's top-down goal setting is to reduce observers' cognitive resource availability. In the present study, we examined whether increasing observers' cognitive load influences the frequency and speed of oculomotor capture during scene viewing. In Experiment 1, we tested whether increasing observers' cognitive load modulates the degree of oculomotor capture by a new object suddenly appeared in a scene. Similarly, in Experiment 2, we tested whether increasing observers' cognitive load modulates the degree of oculomotor capture by an object's color change. In both experiments, the degree of oculomotor capture decreased as observers' cognitive resources were reduced. These results suggest that oculomotor capture during scene viewing is dependent on observers' top-down selection mechanisms. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

ADHD in school-aged youth: Management and special treatment considerations in the primary care setting.

PubMed

Weed, Elizabeth D

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is considered one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood. Primary care providers are in the unique position of providing comprehensive care-routine care, well child visits, immunizations, and other healthcare needs-to a majority of children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. As such, primary care providers are pivotal in the diagnosis, management, and treatment of this population. This article will address special treatment considerations to aid in the management of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in the primary care setting, including substance use disorders and diversion, cardiac issues and stimulant medication, medication holidays and follow-up monitoring. The database of PubMed was searched using keywords that included attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, children, prevalence, medication holidays, safety, cardiovascular, cardiac, blood pressure, substance use, diversion, adverse drug reactions; inclusion dates were January 1, 2011 to September 30, 2015. © The Author(s) 2016.

MIM: Math in Motion for K-2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chevalier, Cheryl; Pippen, Mary H.; Stevens, Dorothy

2008-01-01

The authors describe a hands-on program that they developed after their attendance at the NCTM Algebra Academy. The article explains how to use literature to capture youngsters' attention and engage them in interactive mathematical activities.

Directed attention reduces processing of emotional distracters irrespective of valence and arousal level.

PubMed

Wiens, Stefan; Syrjänen, Elmeri

2013-09-01

Emotional stimuli tend to capture attention, and this so-called motivated attention is commonly measured using the early posterior negativity (EPN) and the late positive potential (LPP). We hypothesized that voluntary, directed attention reduces motivated attention more strongly for highly than moderately arousing pleasant or unpleasant pictures. Participants were instructed to direct their attention to either a picture at fixation or the letters flanking the picture. Pictures varied substantially in arousal and valence. When the pictures were attended to, EPN and LPP increased linearly with arousal. When the letters were attended to, these linear effects decreased in the EPN for pleasant and unpleasant pictures and in the LPP for pleasant pictures. Thus, directed attention decreases processing of emotional distracters more strongly for highly than moderately arousing pleasant and unpleasant pictures. These results are consistent with the view that directed attention decreases emotion effects on sensory gain. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thrombopoiesis. Capturing the unicorn.

PubMed

Groopman, J E

1994-11-01

The elusive factor that stimulates megakaryocytes to produce platelets has at last been found; as well as its physiological interest, this factor--thrombopoietin--may be of considerable therapeutic importance.

Structural predictor for nonlinear sheared dynamics in simple glass-forming liquids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ingebrigtsen, Trond S.; Tanaka, Hajime

2018-01-01

Glass-forming liquids subjected to sufficiently strong shear universally exhibit striking nonlinear behavior; for example, a power-law decrease of the viscosity with increasing shear rate. This phenomenon has attracted considerable attention over the years from both fundamental and applicational viewpoints. However, the out-of-equilibrium and nonlinear nature of sheared fluids have made theoretical understanding of this phenomenon very challenging and thus slower to progress. We find here that the structural relaxation time as a function of the two-body excess entropy, calculated for the extensional axis of the shear flow, collapses onto the corresponding equilibrium curve for a wide range of pair potentials ranging from harsh repulsive to soft and finite. This two-body excess entropy collapse provides a powerful approach to predicting the dynamics of nonequilibrium liquids from their equilibrium counterparts. Furthermore, the two-body excess entropy scaling suggests that sheared dynamics is controlled purely by the liquid structure captured in the form of the two-body excess entropy along the extensional direction, shedding light on the perplexing mechanism behind shear thinning.

The BCD of response time analysis in experimental economics.

PubMed

Spiliopoulos, Leonidas; Ortmann, Andreas

2018-01-01

For decisions in the wild, time is of the essence. Available decision time is often cut short through natural or artificial constraints, or is impinged upon by the opportunity cost of time. Experimental economists have only recently begun to conduct experiments with time constraints and to analyze response time (RT) data, in contrast to experimental psychologists. RT analysis has proven valuable for the identification of individual and strategic decision processes including identification of social preferences in the latter case, model comparison/selection, and the investigation of heuristics that combine speed and performance by exploiting environmental regularities. Here we focus on the benefits, challenges, and desiderata of RT analysis in strategic decision making. We argue that unlocking the potential of RT analysis requires the adoption of process-based models instead of outcome-based models, and discuss how RT in the wild can be captured by time-constrained experiments in the lab. We conclude that RT analysis holds considerable potential for experimental economics, deserves greater attention as a methodological tool, and promises important insights on strategic decision making in naturally occurring environments.

The role of expectations, hype and ethics in neuroimaging and neuromodulation futures

PubMed Central

Rusconi, Elena; Mitchener-Nissen, Timothy

2014-01-01

The production of expectations or future-goals for the development of techniques which “read” and modulate brain function, represent an important practical tool for neuroscientists. These visions-of-the-future assist scientists by providing focus for both individual and cross-disciplinary research programs; they encourage the development of new industrial sectors, are used to justify the allocation of government resources and funding, and via the media can help capture the imagination and support of the public. However, such expectations need to be tempered by reality. Over-hyping brain imaging and modulation will lead to disappointment; disappointment that in turn can undermine its potential. Similarly, if neuroscientists focus their attention narrowly on the science without concomitant consideration of its future ethical, legal and social implications, then their expectations may remain unrealized. To develop these arguments herein we introduce the theoretical concept of expectations and the practical consequences of expectations. We contextualize these reflections by referring to brain imaging and modulation studies on deception, which encompass the measurement-suppression-augmentation range. PMID:25400557

Structural predictor for nonlinear sheared dynamics in simple glass-forming liquids.

PubMed

Ingebrigtsen, Trond S; Tanaka, Hajime

2018-01-02

Glass-forming liquids subjected to sufficiently strong shear universally exhibit striking nonlinear behavior; for example, a power-law decrease of the viscosity with increasing shear rate. This phenomenon has attracted considerable attention over the years from both fundamental and applicational viewpoints. However, the out-of-equilibrium and nonlinear nature of sheared fluids have made theoretical understanding of this phenomenon very challenging and thus slower to progress. We find here that the structural relaxation time as a function of the two-body excess entropy, calculated for the extensional axis of the shear flow, collapses onto the corresponding equilibrium curve for a wide range of pair potentials ranging from harsh repulsive to soft and finite. This two-body excess entropy collapse provides a powerful approach to predicting the dynamics of nonequilibrium liquids from their equilibrium counterparts. Furthermore, the two-body excess entropy scaling suggests that sheared dynamics is controlled purely by the liquid structure captured in the form of the two-body excess entropy along the extensional direction, shedding light on the perplexing mechanism behind shear thinning.

Peptide protected gold clusters: chemical synthesis and biomedical applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuan, Qing; Wang, Yaling; Zhao, Lina; Liu, Ru; Gao, Fuping; Gao, Liang; Gao, Xueyun

2016-06-01

Bridging the gap between atoms and nanoparticles, noble metal clusters with atomic precision continue to attract considerable attention due to their important applications in catalysis, energy transformation, biosensing and biomedicine. Greatly different to common chemical synthesis, a one-step biomimetic synthesis of peptide-conjugated metal clusters has been developed to meet the demand of emerging bioapplications. Under mild conditions, multifunctional peptides containing metal capturing, reactive and targeting groups are rationally designed and elaborately synthesized to fabricate atomically precise peptide protected metal clusters. Among them, peptide-protected Au Cs (peptide-Au Cs) possess a great deal of exceptional advantages such as nanometer dimensions, high photostability, good biocompatibility, accurate chemical formula and specific protein targeting capacity. In this review article, we focus on the recent advances in potential theranostic fields by introducing the rising progress of peptide-Au Cs for biological imaging, biological analysis and therapeutic applications. The interactions between Au Cs and biological systems as well as potential mechanisms are also our concerned theme. We expect that the rapidly growing interest in Au Cs-based theranostic applications will attract broader concerns across various disciplines.

Intraspecific non-sexual interactions of Grammostola schulzei (Araneae: Theraphosidae) under laboratory conditions.

PubMed

Ferretti, Nelson E; Pérez-Miles, Fernando

2011-09-01

Intraspecific interactions of araneomorph spiders have received considerable attention, but there are few detailed studies on intraspecific interactions of mygalomorph spiders. Moreover, a thorough understanding of theraphosid biology and ecology is necessary from a conservation standpoint because natural populations may be threatened by habitat disturbances and captures for pet commerce. We described the behavior of conspecific individuals of Grammostola schulzei during non-sexual interactions, under laboratory conditions. Pairs of individuals involving adult males, adult females and juveniles were confronted and observed in resident and intruder conditions, totalizing 115 trials. When confronted two adult females, they retreated or grappled, and performed gaping display with bite attempts, usually resulted in severe injury of the intruder spiders. When confronted females with large juveniles, we frequently observed cannibalism on juveniles. Juveniles exposed to females or to other juveniles retreated or made leg tapping with forelegs and palpal drumming, which are common displays of courting adult males. Adult males courted and clasped some juveniles, but juveniles avoided or reject clasping. The behaviors observed during intraspecific interactions could play an important role determining spatial distribution and could lead to behavioral adaptations of territoriality.

Radiation dominated acoustophoresis driven by surface acoustic waves.

PubMed

Guo, Jinhong; Kang, Yuejun; Ai, Ye

2015-10-01

Acoustophoresis-based particle manipulation in microfluidics has gained increasing attention in recent years. Despite the fact that experimental studies have been extensively performed to demonstrate this technique for various microfluidic applications, numerical simulation of acoustophoresis driven by surface acoustic waves (SAWs) has still been largely unexplored. In this work, a numerical model taking into account the acoustic-piezoelectric interaction was developed to simulate the generation of a standing surface acoustic wave (SSAW) field and predict the acoustic pressure field in the liquid. Acoustic radiation dominated particle tracing was performed to simulate acoustophoresis of particles with different sizes undergoing a SSAW field. A microfluidic device composed of two interdigital transducers (IDTs) for SAW generation and a microfluidic channel was fabricated for experimental validation. Numerical simulations could well capture the focusing phenomenon of particles to the pressure nodes in the experimental observation. Further comparison of particle trajectories demonstrated considerably quantitative agreement between numerical simulations and experimental results with fitting in the applied voltage. Particle switching was also demonstrated using the fabricated device that could be further developed as an active particle sorting device. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How to make predictions about future infectious disease risks

PubMed Central

Woolhouse, Mark

2011-01-01

Formal, quantitative approaches are now widely used to make predictions about the likelihood of an infectious disease outbreak, how the disease will spread, and how to control it. Several well-established methodologies are available, including risk factor analysis, risk modelling and dynamic modelling. Even so, predictive modelling is very much the ‘art of the possible’, which tends to drive research effort towards some areas and away from others which may be at least as important. Building on the undoubted success of quantitative modelling of the epidemiology and control of human and animal diseases such as AIDS, influenza, foot-and-mouth disease and BSE, attention needs to be paid to developing a more holistic framework that captures the role of the underlying drivers of disease risks, from demography and behaviour to land use and climate change. At the same time, there is still considerable room for improvement in how quantitative analyses and their outputs are communicated to policy makers and other stakeholders. A starting point would be generally accepted guidelines for ‘good practice’ for the development and the use of predictive models. PMID:21624924

Analysis and Modeling of Ground Operations at Hub Airports

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Atkins, Stephen (Technical Monitor); Andersson, Kari; Carr, Francis; Feron, Eric; Hall, William D.

2000-01-01

Building simple and accurate models of hub airports can considerably help one understand airport dynamics, and may provide quantitative estimates of operational airport improvements. In this paper, three models are proposed to capture the dynamics of busy hub airport operations. Two simple queuing models are introduced to capture the taxi-out and taxi-in processes. An integer programming model aimed at representing airline decision-making attempts to capture the dynamics of the aircraft turnaround process. These models can be applied for predictive purposes. They may also be used to evaluate control strategies for improving overall airport efficiency.

Emotional modulation of the attentional blink by pleasant and unpleasant pictures.

PubMed

de Oca, Beatrice M; Villa, Marie; Cervantes, Miguel; Welbourne, Tyler

2012-01-01

When shown a rapid series of images, attention to a second target that follows in short proximity to a first is diminished--a phenomenon sometimes called an "attentional blink." Three experiments compared detection of motivationally relevant pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures when they appeared as the second target following a neutral (Experiment 1), unpleasant (Experiment 2) and pleasant (Experiment 3) picture target. The second target followed at lags of 2, 3 or 8 pictures. In all three experiments, detection of neutral pictures was reduced at lags 2 and 3, indicative of an attentional blink. In contrast, unpleasant pictures were detected more than neutral pictures at lags 2 and 3. Unexpectedly, pleasant pictures not only resisted the attentional blink, but they were detected substantially more than other pictures at all lags in all three experiments. Overall, the experiments support the idea that motivationally relevant stimuli preferentially capture attention more than motivationally neutral stimuli.

A facilitative effect of negative affective valence on working memory.

PubMed

Gotoh, Fumiko; Kikuchi, Tadashi; Olofsson, Ulrich

2010-06-01

Previous studies have shown that negatively valenced information impaired working memory performance due to an attention-capturing effect. The present study examined whether negative valence could also facilitate working memory. Affective words (negative, neutral, positive) were used as retro-cues in a working memory task that required participants to remember colors at different spatial locations on a computer screen. Following the cue, a target detection task was used to either shift attention to a different location or keep attention at the same location as the retro-cue. Finally, participants were required to discriminate the cued color from a set of distractors. It was found that negative cues yielded shorter response times (RTs) in the attention-shift condition and longer RTs in the attention-stay condition, compared with neutral and positive cues. The results suggest that negative affective valence may enhance working memory performance (RTs), provided that attention can be disengaged.

Reward Draws the Eye, Uncertainty Holds the Eye: Associative Learning Modulates Distractor Interference in Visual Search

PubMed Central

Koenig, Stephan; Kadel, Hanna; Uengoer, Metin; Schubö, Anna; Lachnit, Harald

2017-01-01

Stimuli in our sensory environment differ with respect to their physical salience but moreover may acquire motivational salience by association with reward. If we repeatedly observed that reward is available in the context of a particular cue but absent in the context of another cue the former typically attracts more attention than the latter. However, we also may encounter cues uncorrelated with reward. A cue with 50% reward contingency may induce an average reward expectancy but at the same time induces high reward uncertainty. In the current experiment we examined how both values, reward expectancy and uncertainty, affected overt attention. Two different colors were established as predictive cues for low reward and high reward respectively. A third color was followed by high reward on 50% of the trials and thus induced uncertainty. Colors then were introduced as distractors during search for a shape target, and we examined the relative potential of the color distractors to capture and hold the first fixation. We observed that capture frequency corresponded to reward expectancy while capture duration corresponded to uncertainty. The results may suggest that within trial reward expectancy is represented at an earlier time window than uncertainty. PMID:28744206

Preparation Methods of Metal Organic Frameworks and Their Capture of CO2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Linjian; Liand, Fangqin; Luo, Liangfei

2018-01-01

The increasingly serious greenhouse effect makes people pay more attention to the capture and storage technology of CO2. Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) have the advantages of high specific surface area, porous structure and controllable structure, and become the research focus of CO2 emission reduction technology in recent years. In this paper, the characteristics, preparation methods and application of MOFs in the field of CO2 adsorption and separation are discussed, especially the application of flue gas environment in power plants.

76 FR 55804 - Dicamba; Pesticide Tolerances

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-09

... Considerations A. Analytical Enforcement Methodology Adequate enforcement methodologies, Methods I and II--gas chromatography with electron capture detection (GC/ECD), are available to enforce the tolerance expression. The...

Attentional capture by evaluative stimuli: gain- and loss-connoting colors boost the additional-singleton effect.

PubMed

Wentura, Dirk; Müller, Philipp; Rothermund, Klaus

2014-06-01

In a valence induction task, one color acquired positive valence by indicating the chance to win money (in the case of fast and correct responses), and a different color acquired negative valence by indicating the danger to lose money (in the case of slow or incorrect responses). In the additional-singleton trials of a visual search task, the task-irrelevant singleton color was either the positive one, the negative one, or one of two neutral colors. We found an additional-singleton effect (i.e., longer RTs with a singleton color than in the no-singleton control condition). This effect was significantly increased for the two valent colors (with no differences between them) relative to the two neutral colors (with no differences between them, either). This result favors the hypothesis that the general relevance of stimuli elicits attentional capture, rather than the negativity bias hypothesis.

Attention Deficit Disorder: Diagnosis, Etiology and Treatment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barabasz, Marianne; Barabasz, Arreed

1996-01-01

Provides most recent information on attention deficit disorder including: (1) diagnostic considerations according to the latest behavioral criteria and breakthroughs using neurometric EEG assessment; (2) prevalence; (3) etiologies; (4) neurological basis; and (5) treatments. Evaluates alternatives to medication, behavior modification, cognitive…

Synthetic Micro/Nanomachines and Their Applications: Towards 'Fantastic Voyage'

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Wei

The 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage captured the world's imagination, portraying a tiny submarine navigating through the human bloodstream and treating life-threatening medical conditions. My PhD research focuses on the synthetic nano/microscale machines to realize the Fantastic Voyage vision. Various biomedical and environmental areas would benefit from the developments of efficient fuel-free and fuel-driven nano/microscale machines. The polymer-based catalytic tubular microengine is synthesized using a template based electrodeposition method. The oxygen bubble propelled microengine harvests the energy from chemical fuels (such as H2O2) and displays very efficient propulsion. It can serve as an ideal platform for diverse biomedical and environmental applications. For example, lectin modified polyaniline based microengines can be used for selective bacteria (E. Coli) isolation from food, clinical and environmental samples; poly(3-aminophenylboronic acid)/Ni/Pt microengine itself provides the 'built in' glucose recognition capability for 'on-the-fly' capture, transport and release of yeast cells. A series of micromotors which can be self-propelled in natural environments without additional chemical fuels are developed, holding great promise for in vivo biomedical applications: the polyaniline/zinc microrockets display effective autonomous motion in extreme acidic environments (such as human stomach); the Al-Ga/Ti based Janus micromotor can be propelled by the hydrogen bubbles generated from the rapid aluminum and water reaction; alkanethiols modified seawater-driven Mg Janus micromotors, which utilize macrogalvanic corrosion and chloride pitting corrosion processes, can be used for environmental oil remediation. Magnetically powered nanoswimmers have attracted considerable attention due to their great biocompatibility. A high-speed magnetically-propelled nanowire swimmer which mimics swimming microorganisms by exploiting the flexible nanowire as artificial flagella under rotating magnetic field is illustrated. New bioinspired microswimmers can also be prepared directly from isolated spiral vessels of plants, harnessing the intrinsic biological structures of nature. Potential applications of these cargo-towing nanoswimmers are demonstrated by the directed delivery of drug-loaded microparticles to HeLa cancer cells in biological media. With such innovations and developments, along with careful attention to key challenges and requirements, nano/microscale motors are expected to have tremendous impact on diverse biomedical and environmental applications, providing unlimited opportunities limited only by one's imagination.

Understanding relevance of health research: considerations in the context of research impact assessment.

PubMed

Dobrow, Mark J; Miller, Fiona A; Frank, Cy; Brown, Adalsteinn D

2017-04-17

With massive investment in health-related research, above and beyond investments in the management and delivery of healthcare and public health services, there has been increasing focus on the impact of health research to explore and explain the consequences of these investments and inform strategic planning. Relevance is reflected by increased attention to the usability and impact of health research, with research funders increasingly engaging in relevance assessment as an input to decision processes. Yet, it is unclear whether relevance is a synonym for or predictor of impact, a necessary condition or stage in achieving it, or a distinct aim of the research enterprise. The main aim of this paper is to improve our understanding of research relevance, with specific objectives to (1) unpack research relevance from both theoretical and practical perspectives, and (2) outline key considerations for its assessment. Our approach involved the scholarly strategy of review and reflection. We prepared a draft paper based on an exploratory review of literature from various fields, and gained from detailed and insightful analysis and critique at a roundtable discussion with a group of key health research stakeholders. We also solicited review and feedback from a small sample of expert reviewers. Research relevance seems increasingly important in justifying research investments and guiding strategic research planning. However, consideration of relevance has been largely tacit in the health research community, often depending on unexplained interpretations of value, fit and potential for impact. While research relevance seems a necessary condition for impact - a process or component of efforts to make rigorous research usable - ultimately, relevance stands apart from research impact. Careful and explicit consideration of research relevance is vital to gauge the overall value and impact of a wide range of individual and collective research efforts and investments. To improve understanding, this paper outlines four key considerations, including how research relevance assessments (1) orientate to, capture and compare research versus non-research sources, (2) consider both instrumental versus non-instrumental uses of research, (3) accommodate dynamic temporal-shifting perspectives on research, and (4) align with an intersubjective understanding of relevance.

Humor in the eye tracker: attention capture and distraction from context cues.

PubMed

Strick, Madelijn; Holland, Rob W; Van Baaren, Rick; Van Knippenberg, Ad

2010-01-01

The humor effect refers to a robust finding in memory research that humorous information is easily recalled, at the expense of recall of nonhumorous information that was encoded in close temporal proximity. Previous research suggests that memory retrieval processes underlie this effect. That is, free recall is biased toward humorous information, which interferes with the retrieval of nonhumorous information. The present research tested an additional explanation that has not been specifically addressed before: Humor receives enhanced attention during information encoding, which decreases attention for context information. Participants observed humorous, nonhumorous positive, and nonhumorous neutral texts paired with novel consumer brands, while their eye movements were recorded using eye-tracker technology. The results confirmed that humor receives prolonged attention relative to both positive and neutral nonhumorous information. This enhanced attention correlated with impaired brand recognition.

Relational Motives Reduce Attentional Adhesion to Attractive Alternatives in Heterosexual University Students in China.

PubMed

Zhang, Qiuli; Maner, Jon K; Xu, Yin; Zheng, Yong

2017-02-01

In heterosexual individuals, attention is automatically captured by physically attractive members of the opposite sex. Although helpful for selecting new mates, attention to attractive relationship alternatives can threaten satisfaction with and commitment to an existing romantic relationship. The current study tested the hypothesis that although a mating prime would increase selective attention to attractive opposite-sex targets (relative to less attractive targets) among single participants, this effect would be reduced among people already committed to a long-term romantic partner. Consistent with hypotheses, whereas single participants responded to a mating prime with greater attentional adhesion to physically attractive opposite-sex targets (relative to less attractive targets), participants in a committed romantic relationship showed no such effect. These findings extend previous research suggesting the presence of relationship maintenance mechanisms that operate at early stages of social cognition.

The disruptive effects of pain on n-back task performance in a large general population sample

PubMed Central

Attridge, Nina; Noonan, Donna; Eccleston, Christopher; Keogh, Edmund

2015-01-01

Abstract Pain captures attention, displaces current concerns, and prioritises escape and repair. This attentional capture can be measured by its effects on general cognition. Studies on induced pain, naturally occurring acute pain, and chronic pain all demonstrate a detrimental effect on specific tasks of attention, especially those that involve working memory. However, studies to date have relied on relatively small samples and/or one type of pain, thus restricting our ability to generalise to wider populations. We investigated the effect of pain on an n-back task in a large heterogeneous sample of 1318 adults. Participants were recruited from the general population and tested through the internet. Despite the heterogeneity of pain conditions, participant characteristics, and testing environments, we found a performance decrement on the n-back task for those with pain, compared with those without pain; there were significantly more false alarms on nontarget trials. Furthermore, we also found an effect of pain intensity; performance was poorer in participants with higher intensity compared with that in those with lower intensity pain. We suggest that the effects of pain on attention found in the laboratory occur in more naturalistic settings. Pain is common in the general population, and such interruption may have important, as yet uninvestigated, consequences for tasks of everyday cognition that involve working memory, such as concentration, reasoning, motor planning, and prospective memory. PMID:26020226

The road to understanding is paved with the speaker's intentions: cues to the speaker's attention and intentions affect pronoun comprehension.

PubMed

Nappa, Rebecca; Arnold, Jennifer E

2014-05-01

A series of experiments explore the effects of attention-directing cues on pronoun resolution, contrasting four specific hypotheses about the interpretation of ambiguous pronouns he and she: (1) it is driven by grammatical rules, (2) it is primarily a function of social processing of the speaker's intention to communicate, (3) it is modulated by the listener's own egocentric attention, and (4) it is primarily a function of learned probabilistic cues. Experiment 1 demonstrates that pronoun interpretation is guided by the well-known N1 (first-mention) bias, which is also modulated by both the speaker's gaze and pointing gestures. Experiment 2 demonstrates that a low-level visual capture cue has no effect on pronoun interpretation, in contrast with the social cue of pointing. Experiment 3 uses a novel intentional cue: the same attention-capture flash as in Experiment 2, but with instructions that the cue is intentionally created by the speaker. This cue does modulate the N1 bias, demonstrating the importance of information about the speaker's intentions to pronoun resolution. Taken in sum, these findings demonstrate that pronoun resolution is a process best categorized as driven by an appreciation of the speaker's communicative intent, which may be subserved by a sensitivity to predictive cues in the environment. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Feature integration and spatial attention: common processes for endogenous and exogenous orienting.

PubMed

Henderickx, David; Maetens, Kathleen; Soetens, Eric

2010-05-01

Briand (J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 24:1243-1256, 1998) and Briand and Klein (J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 13:228-241, 1987) demonstrated that spatial cueing effects are larger for detecting conjunction of features than for detecting simple features when spatial attention is oriented exogenously, and not when attention is oriented endogenously. Their results were interpreted as if only exogenous attention affects the posterior spatial attention system that performs the feature binding function attributed to spatial attention by Treisman's feature integration theory (FIT; 1980). In a series of 6 experiments, we attempted to replicate Briand's findings. Manipulations of distractor string size and symmetry of stimulus presentation left and right from fixation were implemented in Posner's cueing paradigm. The data indicate that both exogenous and endogenous cueing address the same attentional mechanism needed for feature binding. The results also limit the generalisability of Briand's proposal concerning the role of exogenous attention in feature integration. Furthermore, the importance to control the effect of unintended attentional capture in a cueing task is demonstrated.

Basic processes in reading aloud and colour naming: towards a better understanding of the role of spatial attention.

PubMed

Robidoux, Serje; Rauwerda, Derek; Besner, Derek

2014-05-01

Whether or not lexical access from print requires spatial attention has been debated intensively for the last 30 years. Studies involving colour naming generally find evidence that "unattended" words are processed. In contrast, reading-based experiments do not find evidence of distractor processing. One theory ascribes the discrepancy to weaker attentional demands for colour identification. If colour naming does not capture all of a subject's attention, the remaining attentional resources can be deployed to process the distractor word. The present study combined exogenous spatial cueing with colour naming and reading aloud separately and found that colour naming is less sensitive to the validity of a spatial cue than is reading words aloud. Based on these results, we argue that colour naming studies do not effectively control attention so that no conclusions about unattended distractor processing can be drawn from them. Thus we reiterate the consistent conclusion drawn from reading aloud and lexical decision studies: There is no word identification without (spatial) attention.

Visual attention and flexible normalization pools

PubMed Central

Schwartz, Odelia; Coen-Cagli, Ruben

2013-01-01

Attention to a spatial location or feature in a visual scene can modulate the responses of cortical neurons and affect perceptual biases in illusions. We add attention to a cortical model of spatial context based on a well-founded account of natural scene statistics. The cortical model amounts to a generalized form of divisive normalization, in which the surround is in the normalization pool of the center target only if they are considered statistically dependent. Here we propose that attention influences this computation by accentuating the neural unit activations at the attended location, and that the amount of attentional influence of the surround on the center thus depends on whether center and surround are deemed in the same normalization pool. The resulting form of model extends a recent divisive normalization model of attention (Reynolds & Heeger, 2009). We simulate cortical surround orientation experiments with attention and show that the flexible model is suitable for capturing additional data and makes nontrivial testable predictions. PMID:23345413

A Selective Impairment in Attentional Disengagement from Erotica in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

PubMed Central

Olatunji, Bunmi O.; Ciesielski, Bethany G.; Zald, David H.

2011-01-01

Although an attentional bias for threat has been implicated in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), evidence supporting such a bias has been inconsistent. Furthermore, few studies have made distinctions between attentional capture vs. attentional disengagement and the extent to which different emotional content modulates attention in OCD also remains unclear. To address these issues, we examined patients with OCD (n = 30) and controls (n = 30) during an emotional attentional blink paradigm in which participants searched for a target embedded within a series of rapidly presented images. Critically, an erotic, fear, disgust, or neutral distracter image appeared 200 ms or 800 ms before the target. Impaired target detection was observed among OCD patients relative to controls following erotic distracters, but only when presented 800 ms, and not 200 ms, prior to the target, indicating difficulty with attentional disengagement. Difficulty disengaging from erotic images was significantly correlated with OCD symptoms in the full sample but not with symptoms of trait anxiety. These data delineate a specific information processing abnormality in OCD. PMID:21801779

Predicting bias in perceived position using attention field models.

PubMed

Klein, Barrie P; Paffen, Chris L E; Pas, Susan F Te; Dumoulin, Serge O

2016-05-01

Attention is the mechanism through which we select relevant information from our visual environment. We have recently demonstrated that attention attracts receptive fields across the visual hierarchy (Klein, Harvey, & Dumoulin, 2014). We captured this receptive field attraction using an attention field model. Here, we apply this model to human perception: We predict that receptive field attraction results in a bias in perceived position, which depends on the size of the underlying receptive fields. We instructed participants to compare the relative position of Gabor stimuli, while we manipulated the focus of attention using exogenous cueing. We varied the eccentric position and spatial frequency of the Gabor stimuli to vary underlying receptive field size. The positional biases as a function of eccentricity matched the predictions by an attention field model, whereas the bias as a function of spatial frequency did not. As spatial frequency and eccentricity are encoded differently across the visual hierarchy, we speculate that they might interact differently with the attention field that is spatially defined.

Measuring the interrelations among multiple paradigms of visual attention: an individual differences approach.

PubMed

Huang, Liqiang; Mo, Lei; Li, Ying

2012-04-01

A large part of the empirical research in the field of visual attention has focused on various concrete paradigms. However, as yet, there has been no clear demonstration of whether or not these paradigms are indeed measuring the same underlying construct. We collected a very large data set (nearly 1.3 million trials) to address this question. We tested 257 participants on nine paradigms: conjunction search, configuration search, counting, tracking, feature access, spatial pattern, response selection, visual short-term memory, and change blindness. A fairly general attention factor was identified. Some of the participants were also tested on eight other paradigms. This general attention factor was found to be correlated with intelligence, visual marking, task switching, mental rotation, and Stroop task. On the other hand, a few paradigms that are very important in the attention literature (attentional capture, consonance-driven orienting, and inhibition of return) were found to be dissociated from this general attention factor.

A flexible tool for hydraulic and water quality performance analysis of green infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Massoudieh, A.; Alikhani, J.

2017-12-01

Models that allow for design considerations of green infrastructure (GI) practices to control stormwater runoff and associated contaminants have received considerable attention in recent years. To be used to evaluate the effect design configurations on the long-term performance of GIs, models should be able to consider processes within GIs with good fidelity. In this presentation, a sophisticated, yet flexible tool for hydraulic and water quality assessment of GIs will be introduced. The tool can be used by design engineers and researchers to capture and explore the effect of design factors and properties of the media employed in the performance of GI systems at a relatively small scale. We deemed it essential to have a flexible GI modeling tool that is capable of simulating GI system components and specific biogeochemical processes affecting contaminants such as evapotranspiration, plant uptake, reactions, and particle-associated transport accurately while maintaining a high degree of flexibility to account for the myriad of GI alternatives. The mathematical framework for a stand-alone GI performance assessment tool has been developed and will be demonstrated. The process-based model framework developed here can be used to model a diverse range of GI practices such as stormwater ponds, green roofs, retention ponds, bioretention systems, infiltration trench, permeable pavement and other custom-designed combinatory systems. An example of the application of the system to evaluate the performance of a rain-garden system will be demonstrated.

Slippage theory and the flanker paradigm: an early-selection account of selective attention failures.

PubMed

Gaspelin, Nicholas; Ruthruff, Eric; Jung, Kyunghun

2014-06-01

In the flanker paradigm, participants identify a target letter while attempting to ignore an irrelevant flanker. When the identity of this flanker mismatches the target, target identification is slowed (called the flanker compatibility effect). Interestingly, reducing the array set size greatly increases flanker compatibility effects. This finding inspired 2 prominent explanations: perceptual load (mandatory capacity spillover) and dilution (visual interference). However, an alternative explanation, based on early selection theory and attention capture research, can also explain the data pattern. According to this "slippage" account, observers sometimes accidentally allocate spatial attention to the flanker (see Lachter, Forster, & Ruthruff, 2004), especially when the flanker has the property used to find the target (cf. contingent capture). In Experiments 1 through 4, deterring slippage to the flanker nearly eliminated flanker compatibility effects, even at the low set size. In Experiment 5, promoting slippage to the flanker dramatically enhanced compatibility effects, even at the high set size. Thus, slippage strongly modulates flanker effects and can, by itself, readily explain the impact of set size. The perceptual load and dilution accounts are, at best, incomplete, and, at worst, not needed. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

I ``Saw'' Newton's Three Laws

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shaw, Mike

2012-11-01

Would you like to build an inexpensive, highly visible, quickly assembled device that dramatically illustrates Newton's three laws of motion? This model incorporates sturdiness, high-profile visibility, and a student interest component that is sure to capture and hold their attention.