How many locations can be selected at once?

The visual system uses several tools to select only the most relevant visual information for further processing, including selection by location. In the present study, the authors explored how many locations can be selected at once. Although past evidence from several visual tasks suggests that the visual system can operate on a fixed number of 4 objects or locations at once, the authors found that this capacity varies widely in response to the precision of selection required by the task. When the authors required precise selection regions, only 2-3 locations could be selected. But when the selection regions could be coarser, up to 6-7 locations could be selected. The authors discuss potential mechanisms underlying the selection of multiple locations and review the evidence for fixed limits in visual attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Look before you regulate: Differential perceptual strategies underlying expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal.

Successful emotion regulation is important for maintaining psychological well-being. Although it is known that emotion regulation strategies, such as cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, may have divergent consequences for emotional responses, the cognitive processes underlying these differences remain unclear. Here we used eye-tracking to investigate the role of attentional deployment in emotion regulation success. We hypothesized that differences in the deployment of attention to emotional areas of complex visual scenes may be a contributing factor to the differential effects of these two strategies on emotional experience. Eye-movements, pupil size, and self-reported negative emotional experience were measured while healthy young adult participants viewed negative IAPS images and regulated their emotional responses using either cognitive reappraisal or expressive suppression. Consistent with prior work, reappraisers reported feeling significantly less negative than suppressers when regulating emotion as compared to a baseline condition. Across both groups, participants looked away from emotional areas during emotion regulation, an effect that was more pronounced for suppressers. Critically, irrespective of emotion regulation strategy, participants who looked toward emotional areas of a complex visual scene were more likely to experience emotion regulation success. Taken together, these results demonstrate that attentional deployment varies across emotion regulation strategies and that successful emotion regulation depends on the extent to which people look toward emotional content in complex visual scenes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The siren song of implicit change detection.

Although change blindness could suggest that observers represent far less of their visual world than their conscious experience leads them to believe, they could fail to detect changes even if they fully represent all details. Reports of implicit change detection in the absence of awareness are consistent with the notion that observers' representations are more complete than previously thought. However, to provide convincing evidence, studies must separate implicit detection from explicit processes. This article reexamines the 3 primary claims of implicit change detection and, after replicating original findings, provides theoretical and empirical support for alternative, explicit explanations. Even if observers do represent more of the scene than previously thought, change detection might occur only through explicit comparisons. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The anterior tilt of the acromion: radiographic evaluation and correlation with shoulder diseases

The aim of this study was to test whether the anterior tilt of the acromion can be objectively evaluated on lateral radiographs, and whether there is a relation between this anatomical feature and the most common shoulder diseases. Lateral radiographs of 15 dried scapulas were performed in neutral position and with 5 degrees of caudal, cranial, anterior and posterior angulations. Two hundred and forty-three shoulders, both asymptomatic and affected by chronic and post-traumatic impingement, calcific tendinitis and instability, were examined by conventional radiography. The presence of rotator-cuff tears was investigated by sonography. A method was elaborated to obtain reproducible lateral radiographs and to determine the acromial tilt angle. Inter- and intraobserver and inter- and intraoperator variations in measurements were evaluated. Variations in tube angulation produced changes in tilt-angle values on dried scapulas. The average tilt angle for the chronic impingement and the instability groups were significantly different from the post-traumatic, calcific tendinitis and control groups. Rotator-cuff tears were significantly more frequent in the chronic impingement group and related to a more acute tilt angle. The inter- and intraobserver variability coefficients were 0.95 and 0.98, whereas the inter- and intraoperator variability coefficients were 0.94 and 0.96, respectively. Conventional radiography using fluoroscopy for positioning is a well-reproducible method for the evaluation of acromial tilt. There is a significant difference in tilt-angle values between some groups of subjects examined, but the lack of specificity limits the clinical importance of such measurement.