Attentional and nonattentional forms of sequence learning.

Investigated the hypothesis that sequential patterns of behavior can be learned by 2 independent mechanisms. One requires attention to the relation between successive events, whereas the other operates independently of such attention. In 4 experiments, Ss learned visuospatial sequences in a serial reaction time (RT) task. The relation between attentional and nonattentional learning was explored by assessing the extent to which learning transferred between conditions with or without distraction. Results suggest that attentional and nonattentional learning operate independently, in parallel, do not share information, and represent sequential information in qualitatively different ways. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Capturing visual attention and the curve tracing operation.

The hypothesis that orienting visual attention is an important component of visual curve tracing was investigated. Ss examined a visual display and decided as quickly as possible whether 2 dots were on the same or different curves. The rate of tracing was determined by measuring the effects of curve distance on response time. Attention was directed to a curve by momentarily presenting it at a higher luminance. Directing attention to a curve that had 2 dots on it resulted in faster tracing rates with large benefits in overall response time. Directing attention to a distractor curve resulted in slower tracing rates and sizable costs in overall response times. Two alternative nonattentional explanations (eye movements and visible persistence) were examined and rejected. The role of attention in curve tracing is discussed in terms of the selective nature of curve tracing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Episodic theory of the dynamics of spatial attention.

Previous measurements of visual attention in simple reaction time, choice reaction time and complex discrimination experiments in which attention was purported to move continuously across space are reanalyzed. These data and data from attention gating experiments are quantitatively predicted by an episodic (quantal) theory of spatial attention that proposes instead: (1) visual attention can be resolved into a sequence of discrete attentional acts (episodes), (2) each attentional episode i is defined by its spatial attention function fi(x,y), (3) the smooth transition at time t? between episodes is described by a temporal transition function G(t–t?), and (4) f and G are space-time separable. In new experiments, which use a concurrent motor reaction time task to control for nonattentional factors, the duration of an attention transition is shown to be independent of the distance traversed and of the presence of interposed visual obstacles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What is coded into memory in the absence of outcome feedback?

Although people often have to learn from environments with scarce and highly selective outcome feedback, the question of how nonfeedback trials are represented in memory and affect later performance has received little attention in models of learning and decision making. In this article, the authors use the generalized context model (Nosofsky, 1986) as a vehicle to test contrasting hypotheses about the coding of nonfeedback trials. Data across 3 experiments with selective decision-contingent and selective outcome-contingent feedback provide support for the hypothesis of constructivist coding (Elwin, Juslin, Olsson, & Enkvist, 2007), according to which the outcomes on nonfeedback trials are coded with the most likely outcome, as inferred by the individual. The relation to sampling-based approaches to judgment, and the adaptive significance of constructivist coding, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences and autonomic control: Absorption, hypnotic susceptibility, and the unilateral control of skin temperature.

Proposed to (a) replicate earlier findings that human Ss could voluntarily control peripheral skin temperature, (b) test the hypothesis that hypnotic susceptibility and the capacity for absorbed, imaginative attention would enhance autonomic learning and performance, and (c) demonstrate a learning effect, if one exists. A comparison was made with 7 Ss who scored high and 7 Ss who scored low on both a modified version of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility and the Tellegen Absorption Scale. Auditory feedback was used to train Ss to produce a difference in skin temperature in one hand relative to the other in a direction specified by the E. Large and reliable performance and learning effects were found, but they were unrelated to hypnotic susceptibility or the capacity for absorbed, imaginative attention. Variables that might account for individual differences in learning and performance are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transfer along a continuum in the discriminative learning of honeybees (Apis mellifera).

In each of 2 experiments on discriminative learning in free-flying honeybees (Apis mellifera), performance in a difficult problem was found to be facilitated by prior training in an easier problem. In Experiment 1, animals that were trained to detect a strong anomaly in the ambient geomagnetic field performed better when the intensity of the anomaly was reduced than did control animals that were trained from the onset with the weaker anomaly. In Experiment 2, animals that were trained to detect a 20-μl drop of sucrose solution and then a 10-μl drop of the same solution performed better when the size of the drop was reduced to 5 μl than did control animals trained from the onset with the 5-μl drop. These results are of interest because they add transfer along a continuum to a growing list of vertebrate learning phenomena found in honeybees and because of their bearing on a developing theory of discriminative learning in honeybees. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective attention in obsessive–compulsive disorder.

Recent information-processing studies have suggested that a selective attention deficit may be involved in the symptomatology of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). In this study, individuals diagnosed with OCD were distinguished from those with panic disorder and from control participants by their relatively poorer performance on a series of psychometric tasks of selective attention. These results are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis of a diminished ability of people with OCD to selectively ignore competing external (sensory) and internal (cognitive) stimuli, especially intrusive thoughts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective attention and response strategies as factors in serial reversal learning.

3 experiments investigated the basis of serial-reversal improvement in 40 white Carneaux pigeons. In the 1st, Ss trained on either color or position reversals alone performed more accurately than Ss initially trained on interspersed color and position reversals, and then shifted to 1 type of problem only. This suggests that the selective strengthening of attention to a single relevant dimension is 1 factor underlying rapid reversal learning. In 2 further experiments, Ss were trained on delayed conditional discriminations, the requirements of which were similar to those of a win-stay, lose-shift strategy. Ss' poor performance on these problems implies that such strategies do not play an important part in reversal learning in these Ss. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective attention in human associative learning and recognition memory.

Four experiments examined the role of selective attention in a new causal judgment task that allowed measurement of both causal strength and cue recognition. In Experiments 1 and 2, blocking was observed; pretraining with 1 cue (A) resulted in reduced learning about a 2nd cue (B) when those 2 cues were trained in compound (AB+). Participants also demonstrated decreased recognition performance for the causally redundant Cue B, suggesting that less attention had been paid to it in training. This is consistent with the idea that attention is preferentially allocated toward the more predictive Cue A, and away from the less predictive Cue B (e.g., N. J. Mackintosh, 1975). Contrary to this hypothesis, in Experiments 3 and 4, participants demonstrated poorer recognition for the most predictive cues, relative to control cues. A new model, which is based on N. J. Mackintosh's (1975) model, is proposed to account for the observed relationship between the extent to which each cue is attended to, learned about, and later recognized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual search for natural grains in pigeons (Columba livia): Search images and selective attention.

The experiments reported here were designed to test the suggestion of many researchers that selective attention to visual features of a prey can account for search-image effects. In 3 experiments pigeons ate wheat and vetch grains presented on multicolored and gray gravel trays. In Experiment 1 search-image effects were evident when grains were cryptic but not when they were conspicuous. Experiment 2 demonstrated that search images can be activated when the grains encountered are either cryptic or conspicuous but that search images affect search performance only when the grains are cryptic. Experiment 3 demonstrated that search images are short-term in nature: A 3-min delay between successive encounters with a type of grain disrupted an activated search image. The discussion addresses how these results further develop a model in which search images are viewed as selective attention to visual features of a prey. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Potentiation, overshadowing, and prior exposure to inescapable shock.

Four experiments are reported which explore the possibility that prior exposure to inescapable shock alters the way in which animals process information from responding during subsequent escape training. The stimulus consequences of responding were manipulated in each experiment. Rats received escapable shock, yoked, inescapable shock, or no shock prior to fixed ratio-2 (FR-2) shuttle escape training. A novel change in illumination following each shuttle response had opposite effects on inescapably shocked and control subjects. It dramatically improved the performance of inescapably shocked rats but impaired the performance of restrained subjects. The signal had no effect on escape trained animals. Response-produced auditory cues following each lever press on an FR-3 lever-press escape task were also observed to improve learning in inescapably shocked rats but to impair learning in restrained controls. The relation between lever pressing and the exteroceptive cue was manipulated. The exteroceptive cue enhanced learning in inescapably shocked rats when any two of the three required lever presses produced the cue. In contrast, the performance of restrained animals was impaired whenever the third response of the FR-3 produced the cue. Otherwise performance was unimpaired. The implications of these results are discussed with respect to the phenomena of potentiation and overshadowing, as well as to ways in which prior exposure to inescapable shock might alter information processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavior of the turtle (Chrysemys picta picta) in simultaneous, successive, and behavioral contrast situations.

4 experiments on reward and learning in a total of 99 painted turtles yielded the following patterns of results: negative simultaneous contrast, positive behavioral contrast, a positive relation between magnitude of reward and resistance to extinction, and a gradual decrement in performance as a function of abrupt reduction in magnitude of reward, but no suggestion of negative successive contrast. This pattern is the same as that of analogous experiments with fish and quite different from that of analogous experiments with rats. Its bearing on the interrelatins among the various contrast phenomena and on the problem of phyletic differences in learning is discussed. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age differences in the inhibition of return of visual attention.

Responses to targets are slower when they appear at a location to which attention has previously been directed than when they appear at other locations. This inhibition of return (IOR) effect is subserved by posterior brain attentional systems. In 4 experiments the IOR effect in elderly adults was found to be at least as large as in young adults for both discrimination tasks and for detection tasks. The time course and the spread of inhibition within the visual field were also equivalent in the 2 age groups. Additive factors logic was then used to test the hypothesis that the Stroop and IOR effects are due to a common mechanism, a failure to suppress attention. This hypothesis was not confirmed. The results of the 6 experiments are consistent with the hypothesis that there are changes in posterior brain systems responsible for selective attention to a location, contrary to prior claims. They cannot be explained by a general slowing of processing in old age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the relation between abilities, learning, and human performance.

Describes the author's research efforts to link basic and applied psychology concepts in each of the following areas: aptitude measurement, learning and training, and human task performance. Several studies are described in detail to illustrate a number of broad issues, particularly the possibility of using combinations of experimental and correlational methods for studying complex human behavior, and the need to develop concepts that allow more dependable generalization of research findings to new situations (particularly to new tasks). A taxonomy of human perceptual-motor abilities is described and related to more complex tasks. Other studies investigated the relationship between abilities and skill acquisition; individual differences in various learning phenomena (e.g., transfer of training); and whether the taxonomic categories are useful for standardizing laboratory tasks and for generalizing results of these tasks to new tasks. Results suggest that (a) experimental-correlational studies can be used to develop a body of principles relating task dimensions to ability requirements; (b) kinesthetic ability factors become more important than spatial ones as psychomotor learning progresses; and (c) it should be possible to develop a data base about human performance, indexed by type of task. (37 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood management across affective states: The hedonic contingency hypothesis.

Mood management in positive and negative moods is relevant to a variety of social phenomena and has been especially important in the helping literature. Theorists have predicted that sad people strategically engage in mood management activities more than happy people. However, application of learning principles across affective states led the authors to hypothesize that hedonic rewards are more contingent on scrutiny of hedonic consequences in happy than sad states. Thus, happy people should scrutinize the hedonic consequences of potential behaviors more than sad people. A selective exposure paradigm was used to test this hedonic contingency hypothesis. People in whom happy, sad, or neutral states were induced were asked to choose activities in which to engage. In 3 experiments, happy people based their choices on the affective consequences of those activities more than sad or neutral individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of Familiarity on the Perceptual Integrality of the Identity and Expression of Faces: The Parallel-Route Hypothesis Revisited.

The effects of familiarity on selective attention for the identity and expression of faces were tested using Garner's speeded-classification task. In 2 experiments, participants classified expression (or identity) of familiar and unfamiliar faces while the irrelevant dimension of identity (or expression) was either held constant (baseline condition) or varied randomly (filtering condition). Selective attention was measured by the difference in performance between these 2 conditions. Failure of selective attention was larger for familiar than for unfamiliar faces. In addition, failure of selective attention was found both for identity and for expression judgments. These findings show that familiarity increases (he perceptual integrality between identity and expression, and they question previous studies arguing that identity judgments are always resistant to irrelevant variations in expression. The authors suggest that the systems processing identity and expression are interconnected in that facial identity serves as a reference from which expressions can be more easily derived. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of attention in implicit learning.

Previous research has shown that implicit learning of a serial pattern in a reaction time (RT) task is eliminated or reduced when the task is performed concurrently with a tone-counting task. These results led to the inference that implicit learning requires attentional capacity. Two experiments tested the alternative hypothesis that the tone-counting task disrupts learning by preventing consistent organization of the sequence. The tone-counting condition was compared with a condition with additional attentional demands, but no disruption of organization, and with a condition with no additional attentional demands, but disruption of organization. The results were consistent with the organizational hypothesis. It is argued that learning depends on practicing consistently organized runs of trials, that shifts of attention may determine how the runs are organized, and that the relation between attention and learning depends more on organization and intention than on capacity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Primacy of dimensions in color perception.

Used a procedure called selective/individual rotation to investigate the role of dimensions in the perception of color. Ss performed either selective-attention or divided-attention tasks to paired dimensions created from each of 3 orientations of axes in color space: 0°, 22.5°, and 45°. The authors evaluated a Euclidean hypothesis, namely, that speeded classification of interacting dimensions is invariant to rigid rotation of stimulus axes. All experiments obtained evidence against this Euclidean hypothesis. Exps 1–4 showed that selective attention was best at the orientation corresponding to saturation and brightness, suggesting primacy of these dimensions. The results were replicated with the pairs hue–saturation (Exp 7) and hue–brightness (Exp 8). The authors conclude that interacting dimensions can be primary and that dimensional primacy characterizes much of perceptual experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stimulus Generalization in Two Associative Learning Processes.

Recent studies involving nonlinear discrimination problems suggest that stimuli in human associative learning are represented configurally with nairow generalization, such that presentation of stimuli that are even slightly dissimilar to stored configurations weakly activate these configurations. The authors note that another well-known set of findings in human associative learning, cue-interaction phenomena, suggest relatively broad generalization. Three experiments show that current models of human associative learning, which try to model both nonlinear discrimination and cue interaction as the result of 1 process, fail because they cannot simultaneously account for narrow and broad generalization. Results suggest that human associative learning involves (a) an exemplar-based process with configural stimulus representation and narrow generalization and (b) an adaptive learning process characterized by broad generalization and cue interaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)