No-onset looming motion guides spatial attention.

These 6 experiments explored the ability of moving random dot patterns to attract attention, as measured by a simple probe-detection task. Each trial began with random motion (i.e., dots linearly moved in random directions). After 1 s motion in 1 hemifield became gradually coherent (i.e., all dots moved up-, down-, left-, or rightwards, or either towards or away from a vanishing point). The results show that only looming motion attracted attention, even when the task became a more demanding discrimination task. This effect is not due to an apparent magnification of stimuli presented in the focus of expansion. When the coherent motion started abruptly, all types of motion attracted attention at a short stimulus onset asynchrony. The looming motion effect only disappeared when attention was drawn to the target location by an arrow. These results suggest that looming motion plays a unique role in guiding spatial attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attention to gaze and emotion in schizophrenia.

Objective: Individuals with schizophrenia have difficulty interpreting social and emotional cues such as facial expression, gaze direction, body position, and voice intonation. Nonverbal cues are powerful social signals but are often processed implicitly, outside the focus of attention. The aim of this research was to assess implicit processing of social cues in individuals with schizophrenia. Method: Patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and matched controls performed a primary task of word classification with social cues in the background. Participants were asked to classify target words (LEFT/RIGHT) by pressing a key that corresponded to the word, in the context of facial expressions with eye gaze averted to the left or right. Results: Although facial expression and gaze direction were irrelevant to the task, these facial cues influenced word classification performance. Participants were slower to classify target words (e.g., LEFT) that were incongruent to gaze direction (e.g., eyes averted to the right) compared to target words (e.g., LEFT) that were congruent to gaze direction (e.g., eyes averted to the left), but this only occurred for expressions of fear. This pattern did not differ for patients and controls. Conclusion: The results showed that threat-related signals capture the attention of individuals with schizophrenia. These data suggest that implicit processing of eye gaze and fearful expressions is intact in schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral and Physiological Measures in the Detection of Concealed Information.

The authors examined the incremental validity of the reaction time (RT) measure beyond that of skin conductance response (SCR) in the detection of concealed information. Participants performed a Stroop-like task in which they named the color of critical and neutral words. Results show that the SCR highly differentiated between the relevant and neutral words. However, the RT demonstrated a significant differentiation only when the critical words denoted personally significant items (e.g., one's own name) and not when they denoted crime-relevant items related to a simulated crime. In both cases, combining the 2 measures yielded no advantage over the use of SCR alone. Thus, although behavioral measures may differentiate between relevant and neutral information in some cases, their practical use is questionable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inhibition of return and visuospatial attention in healthy older adults and individuals with dementia of the Alzheimer type.

Covert orienting of visuospatial attention in response to peripherally presented cues was assessed in healthy younger and older adults and those with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) during a simple detection task. The results yield both an age-related increase (Experiments 1 and 2) and a DAT-related increase (Experiment 2) in the facilitatory effect of a single peripheral cue on detection. By contrast, equivalent inhibition of return (i.e., a slowing of target detection at previously cued locations) was observed for all 3 groups when a 2nd cue was presented at central fixation. Results suggest that both healthy older adults and individuals with DAT experience changes in the posterior attention system thought to subserve visuospatial attention. Results also suggest limitations on the generality of inhibitory deficits in healthy aging and DAT. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of levels of processing on recall from working memory and delayed recall tasks.

Recent research in working memory has highlighted the similarities involved in retrieval from complex span tasks and episodic memory tasks, suggesting that these tasks are influenced by similar memory processes. In the present article, the authors manipulated the level of processing engaged when studying to-be-remembered words during a reading span task (Experiment 1) and an operation span task (Experiment 2) in order to assess the role of retrieval from secondary memory during complex span tasks. Immediate recall from both span tasks was greater for items studied under deep processing instructions compared with items studied under shallow processing instructions regardless of trial length. Recall was better for deep than for shallow levels of processing on delayed recall tests as well. These data are consistent with the primary-secondary memory framework, which suggests that to-be-remembered items are displaced from primary memory (i.e., the focus of attention) during the processing phases of complex span tasks and therefore must be retrieved from secondary memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The speed of feature-based attention: Attentional advantage is slow, but selection is fast.

When paying attention to a feature (e.g., red), no attentional advantage is gained in perceiving items with this feature in very brief displays. Therefore, feature-based attention seems to be slow. In previous feature-based attention studies, attention has often been measured as the difference in performance in a secondary task. In our recent work on Boolean map theory (Huang & Pashler, 2007), we distinguished between 2 concepts that are often conflated with the term attention, namely the selection of information from stimulus and the following processing optimization (i.e., attentional advantage) of the selected stimulus. Attention, as examined in previous feature-based attention studies, only fits the definition of processing optimization, but does not fit the definition of selection of information. Therefore, it is open to question whether feature-based attention, when defined as selection, is fast or slow. In this study, I systematically measured the speed of feature-based attention in relation to both definitions. Attention was found to be slow (~100 ms) in terms of processing optimization (i.e., attentional advantage) but fast in terms of the selection of information (     

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

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. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of divided attention on memory for items and their context.

Examined differences between item and context memory using divided attention at encoding and retrieval. Ss, in 3 experiments, were presented with word lists and were instructed to learn the items (i.e., words), the intrinsic context (i.e., the color of the cards on which each word was presented), and the extrinsic context (i.e., the temporal order of the words). In Exp 1 24 undergraduates (aged 20–32 yrs) participated in a digit-monitoring and memory tasks. In Exp 2 the authors examined the effect of divided attention at retrieval using 24 undergraduates (aged 18–29 yrs). In Exp 3 the authors examined memory performance when divided attention was employed at encoding on all lists, and attentional load was manipulated at retrieval using 24 undergraduates (aged 19–32 yrs). Among young adults, in comparison to conditions of full attention, divided attention applied at encoding only or retrieval only resulted in equally lower performance on all memory tasks; in contrast, divided attention applied at both encoding and retrieval resulted in lower performance only on memory for temporal order. The findings support the idea that memory for temporal order requires greater attentional resources and strategic processing than memory for items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence for proactive interference in the focus of attention of working memory.

Proactive interference (PI) occurs when an earlier item interferes with memory for a newer item. Whereas some researchers (e.g., Surprenant & Neath, 2009a) argue that PI can be observed in all memory systems, some multiple systems theorists (e.g., Cowan, 1999) propose that items in the focus of attention of working memory are immune to PI. Two experiments tested whether PI occurs when the to-be-remembered items are assumed, by multiple-systems theorists, to be held in the focus of attention. In each experiment, subjects saw four trials in a row with the same type of to-be-remembered items, followed by four trials in a row with a different type of material. On each trial, only 3 stimuli were shown, which is below the capacity limit of the focus of attention, and subjects were asked if a probe item was one of those 3 items seen. In both experiments, response time increased from Trial 1 to Trial 4, suggesting that items from the earlier trials interfered with memory on the later trials. In addition, release from PI was shown in that response times decreased with a change of materials. The results replicate those first reported by Hanley and Scheirer (1975), and pose a problem for theorists who argue that parts of short-term memory are immune to PI. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What is the unit of visual attention? Object for selection, but Boolean map for access.

In the past 20 years, numerous theories and findings have suggested that the unit of visual attention is the object. In this study, I first clarify 2 different meanings of unit of visual attention, namely the unit of access in the sense of measurement and the unit of selection in the sense of division. In accordance with this distinction, I argue that an object, as commonly described, is only the unit of selection. The unit of access is better characterized as a Boolean map (Huang & Pashler, 2007), that is, the linkage of a single feature value per dimension associated with a map (i.e., a set of locations). The experiments in this study demonstrated the following: (a) Grouping items into a single object (by connecting them) does not improve the perception of these items (Experiment 1); (b) same-object advantage exists only when the features to be perceived are different dimensions of a single Boolean map and not when they belong to different parts of an object (Experiments 2 and 3); (c) cuing the relevant feature does not help perception when the features to be perceived are different dimensions of a single Boolean map but does help significantly when these features belong to different parts of an object (Experiment 4); and (d) connection, as used in Experiments 1–4, is effective in affecting object structure (i.e., affecting the mechanism of selection) in both an enumeration and a tracking task (Experiments 5 and 6). The results of these experiments, together with data available in the literature, demonstrate that the unit of access is a Boolean map, not an object. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does emotion processing require attention? The effects of fear conditioning and perceptual load.

This study examined the impact of perceptual load on the processing of unattended threat-relevant faces. Participants performed a central letter-classification task while ignoring irrelevant face distractors, which appeared above or below the central task. The face distractors were graded for affective salience by means of aversive fear conditioning, with a conditioned angry face (CS+), an unconditioned angry face (CS?), and a neutral control face. The letter-classification task was presented under conditions of both low and high perceptual load. Results showed that fear conditioned (i.e., CS+) angry face distractors interfered with task performance more than CS? angry or neutral face distractors but that this interference was completely eliminated by high perceptual load. These findings demonstrate that aversively conditioned face distractors capture attention only under conditions of low perceptual load. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accessing information in working memory: Can the focus of attention grasp two elements at the same time?

Processing information in working memory requires selective access to a subset of working-memory contents by a focus of attention. Complex cognition often requires joint access to 2 items in working memory. How does the focus select 2 items? Two experiments with an arithmetic task and 1 with a spatial task investigate time demands for successive operations that involve 2 digits or 2 spatial positions, respectively. When both items used in an operation have been used in the preceding operation, latencies are shortened. No such repetition benefit (arithmetic) or a much smaller benefit (spatial) was found when only 1 item was repeated. The results rule out serial access to the 2 items, parallel access by expanding the focus, and parallel access by splitting the focus. They support the notion that 2 items are accessed by chunking them, so that they fit a focus limited to 1 chunk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Focal distraction: Spatial shifts of attentional focus are not required for contingent capture.

Contingent capture occurs when distractors that share the target's defining attribute capture attention and slow down target identification. This slowdown has been attributed to an involuntary attentional shift to the location of a pertinent distractor. The present study examined an additional source of delay: the time spent in processing pertinent distractors. In 7 experiments, distractors were presented at fixation, and targets were presented either at fixation or peripherally. Contingent capture invariably occurred when a salient distractor was presented within about 600 ms before the target, even when spatial shifts in attentional focus were ruled out. A 2-stage model is proposed in which stimuli must pass an input filter tuned to the target's defining attribute before gaining access to a high-level stage that is unavailable while a distractor is being processed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Source memory and divided attention: Reciprocal costs to primary and secondary tasks.

Source memory, in comparison with item memory, is more sensitive to frontal lesions and may require more strategic processing. Divided attention was used to restrict attentional resources and strategic processing on memory tasks. Participants encoded and retrieved items (i.e., words) and source (i.e., voice or spatial location) while concurrently performing a fingertapping (FT) or visual reaction-time (VRT) task. Memory accuracy costs under divided attention were greater for retrieval of source than item and were greater with VRT than FT. Similarly, costs to the secondary task were greater when concurrently retrieving source as opposed to item and were greater for VRT than FT. Effects were stronger when spatial location was used as the source task. Findings support the idea that processing source information requires more attentional resources and effort than processing item information. Furthermore, concurrent performance of VRT produced greater interference with a task that was more dependent on intact frontal functioning and better simulated the performance of patients with frontal dysfunction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The combined effect of gaze direction and facial expression on cueing spatial attention.

Empirical evidence shows an effect of gaze direction on cueing spatial attention, regardless of the emotional expression shown by a face, whereas a combined effect of gaze direction and facial expression has been observed on individuals' evaluative judgments. In 2 experiments, the authors investigated whether gaze direction and facial expression affect spatial attention depending upon the presence of an evaluative goal. Disgusted, fearful, happy, or neutral faces gazing left or right were followed by positive or negative target words presented either at the spatial location looked at by the face or at the opposite spatial location. Participants responded to target words based on affective valence (i.e., positive/negative) in Experiment 1 and on letter case (lowercase/uppercase) in Experiment 2. Results showed that participants responded much faster to targets presented at the spatial location looked at by disgusted or fearful faces but only in Experiment 1, when an evaluative task was used. The present findings clearly show that negative facial expressions enhance the attentional shifts due to eye-gaze direction, provided that there was an explicit evaluative goal present. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Stroop effect: Why proportion congruent has nothing to do with congruency and everything to do with contingency.

The item-specific proportion congruent (ISPC) effect refers to the observation that the Stroop effect is larger for words that are presented mostly in congruent colors (e.g., BLUE presented 75% of the time in blue) and smaller for words that are presented mostly in a given incongruent color (e.g., YELLOW presented 75% of the time in orange). One account of the ISPC effect, the modulation hypothesis, is that participants modulate attention based on the identity of the word (i.e., participants allow the word to influence responding when it is presented mostly in its congruent color). Another account, the contingency hypothesis, is that participants use the word to predict the response that they will need to make (e.g., if the word is YELLOW, then the response is probably "orange"). Reanalyses of data from L. L. Jacoby, D. S. Lindsay, and S. Hessels (2003), along with results from new experiments, are inconsistent with the modulation hypothesis but entirely consistent with the contingency hypothesis. A response threshold mechanism that uses contingency information provides a sufficient account of the data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial attention and audiovisual interactions in apparent motion.

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 by means of a blocked design or by predictive peripheral cues, and exogenously by means of nonpredictive peripheral cues. The results of 3 experiments demonstrate a reduction in the magnitude of the cross-modal dynamic capture effect on cued trials compared with uncued trials. The introduction of neutral cues (Experiments 4 and 5) confirmed the existence of both attentional costs and benefits. This attention-related reduction in cross-modal dynamic capture was larger when a peripheral cue was used compared with when attention was oriented in a purely endogenous manner. In sum, the results suggest that spatial attention reduces illusory binding by facilitating the segregation of unimodal signals, thereby modulating audiovisual interactions in information processing. Thus, the effect of spatial attention occurs prior to or at the same time as cross-modal interactions involving motion information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychopathic personality traits associated with abnormal selective attention and impaired cognitive control.

The current study investigated how mechanisms of attention that have been well-characterized in the cognitive psychology literature (Lavie, Hirst, De Fockert, & Viding, 2004; Maylor & Lavie, 1998) may be differentially associated with psychopathic traits in nonincarcerated men. Previous research on cognition and psychopathy indicated that primary psychopathic traits were associated with overfocused attention and/or reduced processing of information peripheral to the focus of attention. Conversely, deficits in executive functioning, such as working memory and cognitive control, were implicated in secondary psychopathic traits. Results revealed a significant relationship between traits typically associated with primary psychopathy (e.g., low anxiety, social dominance, fearlessness, callousness) and reduced processing of task-irrelevant distractors, suggesting diminished basic attentional capacity among individuals high on these traits. In contrast, some characteristics linked to secondary psychopathy (e.g., social alienation, cynicism) showed a positive relationship with impaired working memory functioning, indicative of deficits in cognitive control, whereas other traits (i.e., self-centeredness, antagonism) did not. These results suggest that psychopathic traits are differentially related to selective impairments in attentional functioning, which may help explain the observed heterogeneity in psychopathic manifestations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disengaging attention: On the locus of the cue-duration effect in partial report.

Increasing cue duration impairs performance in bar-probe partial report when cues are presented peripherally, but not centrally (P. Dixon, R. Gordon, A. Leung, & V. Di Lollo, 1997). Three experiments examined whether this cue-duration effect reflects processes of exogenous attention. The effect of cue duration on partial report performance with peripheral, but not central, cues was replicated (Experiment 1). Further experiments manipulated the degree that exogenous versus endogenous modes of selection were favored and found that the cue-duration effect for peripheral cues was reduced (1) when blocks contained a high proportion of central cues (Experiment 2) and (2) when the color of the cue indicated the location of the target (Experiment 3). These findings challenge the view that the cue-duration effect is restricted to exogenous attention and are discussed in terms of the process of disengaging attention from the cue to reallocate attention to the target representation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Simon effect with and without awareness of the accessory stimulus.

The authors investigated whether a Simon effect could be observed in an accessory-stimulus Simon task when participants were unaware of the task-irrelevant accessory cue. In Experiment 1A a central visual target was accompanied by a suprathreshold visual lateral cue. A regular Simon effect (i.e., faster cue-response corresponding reaction times [RTs]) was found. Experiment 1B demonstrated that this effect cannot be attributed to perceptual grouping of the target and cue. Experiments 2A, 2B, and 2C showed a reverse Simon effect (i.e., faster noncorresponding RTs) when participants were not aware of the cue. In this condition, the Simon effect would occur relative to the reorientation of attention from the cue, which would initially capture attention, toward the target. This conclusion is supported by the results of Experiments 3A and 3B, in which the reorientation of attention was induced by having the target flash after its onset. With suprathreshold cues either a reverse or regular Simon effect was observed by using a 100-ms or ≥200-ms onset flashing interval, respectively, whereas with subthreshold cues a reverse Simon effect was found irrespective of the interval length. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)