Cross-modal interaction between vision and hearing: a speed-accuracy analysis

Cross-modal facilitation of response time (RT) is said to occur in a selective attention task when the introduction of an irrelevant sound increases the speed at which visual stimuli are detected and identified. To investigate the source of the facilitation in RT, we asked participants to rapidly identify the color of lights in the quiet and when accompanied by a pulse of noise. The resulting measures of accuracy and RT were used to derive speed-accuracy trade-off functions (SATFs) separately for the noise and the no-noise conditions. The two resulting SATFs have similar slopes and intercepts and, thus, can be treated as overlapping segments of a single function. That speeded identification of color with and without the presence of noise can be described by one SATF suggests, in turn, that cross-modal facilitation of RT represents a change in decision criterion induced by the auditory stimulus. Analogous changes in decision criteria might also underlie other measures of cross-modal interactions, such as auditory enhancement of brightness judgments.     

Cross-modal interaction between vision and hearing: A speed—accuracy analysis

Cross-modal facilitation of response time (RT) is said to occur in a selective attention task when the introduction of an irrelevant sound increases the speed at which visual stimuli are detected and identified. To investigate the source of the facilitation in RT, we asked participants to rapidly identify the color of lights in the quiet and when accompanied by a pulse of noise. The resulting measures of accuracy and RT were used to derive speed-accuracy trade-off functions (SATFs) separately for the noise and the no-noise conditions. The two resulting SATFs have similar slopes and intercepts and, thus, can be treated as overlapping segments of a single function. That speeded identification of color with and without the presence of noise can be described by one SATF suggests, in turn, that cross-modal facilitation of RT represents a change in decision criterion induced by the auditory stimulus. Analogous changes in decision criteria might also underlie other measures of cross-modal interactions, such as auditory enhancement of brightness judgments.     

Visual detection during the spatial distribution of attention

The present study investigated the possibility of attending to two areas of visual space without mutual interference. Subjects detected brief light flashes within two concentric circles under various conditions of allocating attention between the two circles. Performance within the inner circle was not affected when attention was allocated simultaneously to the outer circle, but there was a slight impairment in detecting stimuli in the outer circle if attention was also directed to the inner circle. These result ts are interpreted in terms of the two spaces being monitored independently but with some evidence of limited resources. It is likely that resources of visual attention reduce as a function of distance from the center of fixation even allowing for equivalence in the perceptual strength of stimuli prior to dividing attention.     

视听刺激突显性对视觉主导效应的影响

本研究使用空间任务-转换范式,控制视、听刺激的突显性,探讨自下而上注意对视觉主导效应的影响。结果表明视、听刺激突显性显著地影响视觉主导效应,实验一中当听觉刺激为高突显性时,视觉主导效应显著减弱。实验二中当听觉刺激为高突显性并且视觉刺激为低突显性时,视觉主导效应进一步减弱但依然存在。结果支持偏向竞争理论,在跨通道视听交互过程中视觉刺激更具突显性,在多感觉整合过程中更具加工优势。     

Rapid activation of motor responses by illusory contours

Whereas physiological studies indicate that illusory contours (ICs) are signaled in early visual areas at short latencies, behavioral studies are divided as to whether IC processing can proceed in a fast, automatic, bottom-up manner or whether it requires extensive top-down intracortical feedback or even awareness and cognition. Here, we employ a response priming paradigm to assess two measures of IC processing using identical stimuli: response priming by ICs, which can occur independently of visual awareness, and a measure of visual awareness of the ICs. In three experiments, participants responded to the orientation of illusory and real-contour targets preceded by illusory and real-contour primes at stimulus-onset asynchronies from 35 to 106 ms. Both illusory and real-contour targets were strongly primed by ICs, and this effect was independent of prime visibility. The effect was fully present in the fastest responses and cannot be explained by responses to stimulus features other than the ICs. Results indicate that ICs, regardless of whether they are consciously perceived, activate fast motor responses, indicating that they are processed without time-consuming intracortical feedback. We conclude that conflicting studies were based on qualitatively different measures of IC processing, some depending on visual awareness and others independent of it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

The decomposition of visual binding over time: Neuropsychological evidence from illusory conjunctions after posterior parietal damage

Patients with Bálint's syndrome are known to make abnormal numbers of illusory conjunctions (ICs) when presented with multiple stimuli and asked to report the features of one. We used two converging procedures to assess the time course of these errors. In Experiments 1 and 2 the errors produced by a patient with Bálint's syndrome, GK, were examined as a function of when he responded. We find that ICs were present even in GK's fastest responses, but that they also increased when GK responded slowly. In Experiment 3 we varied the exposure duration of the stimuli. With short stimulus exposures GK made ICs that he was certain were correct. With longer exposures there was an increase in the number of ICs where GK expressed uncertainty. In contrast to these “uncertain” ICs, feature errors decreased as the exposure duration increased. We propose that the ICs present in GK's fastest responses, and that arise with short stimulus exposures, reflect impairments at a first stage of binding. In addition to this, “uncertain” ICs arise on trials with slow responses, and with long exposures, due to performance then being affected by impairments to a second process dependent on bound features being consolidated into a more stable representation. The role of this consolidation process is limited when responses are made rapidly and exposure durations limited. This two-stage account is discussed in relation to other accounts of feature binding.     

初级视觉皮层在注意振荡中的作用

注意离散性是注意间歇性地采集外界信息的特性, 这种特性在行为中的表现被称为注意振荡。尽管有研究使用经典的线索靶子范式和视觉搜索范式发现行为数据中存在注意振荡, 证明了注意是离散的, 但其相应的神经机制, 即注意离散性与哪些脑区有关, 尚不明确。研究采用高时间分辨率的线索靶子范式和双眼分视技术, 基于人眼视觉通路的解剖学特性, 比较了线索靶子出现在双眼(实验1)、同眼和异眼(实验2)条件下的注意振荡, 考察初级视觉皮层对注意振荡的影响。结果发现：1)双眼分视会对注意振荡发生的频段产生影响, 非双眼分视条件下, 注意振荡出现在低频(2 Hz和8 Hz)。而双眼分视条件下, 注意振荡则出现在更高的频段(12.5 Hz)。2)无论线索靶子出现在同眼还是异眼, 注意振荡的频段无显著差异。结果表明V1区双眼视觉通路或者更高级的视觉区可能参与注意振荡, 为探明注意振荡的神经机制提供了重要的行为学证据。     

Assessing the automaticity of the exogenous orienting of tactile attention

We examined whether or not abrupt tactile onsets are capable of exogenously capturing tactile spatial attention when visual spatial attention is focused elsewhere. In experiment 1, we compared performance under dual-task conditions (where participants performed a tactile exogenous cuing task and a rapid serial visual presentation--RSVP--task at the same time) with their performance under single-task conditions (where the participants had to perform only the cuing task, although the RSVP stream was still presented in the background) and to a no-stream condition (where only the cuing task was presented). Tactile cuing was completely suppressed in both the dual-task and single-task conditions, showing that exogenous tactile spatial orienting is modulated by visual-spatial attention, which hence appears to be far from truly automatic. In experiment 2, we demonstrated that the abolishment of exogenous tactile orienting was not caused by the transient presentation of abrupt onset stimuli (letters). These results therefore show that exogenous spatial attentional orienting toward abrupt peripheral tactile stimuli is possible as long as perceptual resources are not depleted by a perceptually demanding (RSVP) task.     

Aging and goal-directed emotional attention: distraction reverses emotional biases

Previous findings reveal that older adults favor positive over negative stimuli in both memory and attention (for a review, see Mather & Carstensen, 2005). This study used eye tracking to investigate the role of cognitive control in older adults' selective visual attention. Younger and older adults viewed emotional-neutral and emotional-emotional pairs of faces and pictures while their gaze patterns were recorded under full or divided attention conditions. Replicating previous eye-tracking findings, older adults allocated less of their visual attention to negative stimuli in negative-neutral stimulus pairings in the full attention condition than younger adults did. However, as predicted by a cognitive-control-based account of the positivity effect in older adults' information processing tendencies (Mather & Knight, 2005), older adults' tendency to avoid negative stimuli was reversed in the divided attention condition. Compared with younger adults, older adults' limited attentional resources were more likely to be drawn to negative stimuli when they were distracted. These findings indicate that emotional goals can have unintended consequences when cognitive control mechanisms are not fully available.     

Temporal order judgment reveals how number magnitude affects visuospatial attention

The existence of spatial components in the mental representation of number magnitude has raised the question regarding the relation between numbers and spatial attention. We present six experiments in which this relation was examined using a temporal order judgment task to index attentional allocation. Results demonstrate that one important consequence of numerical processing is the automatic allocation of spatial attention, which in turn affects the perception of the temporal order of visual events. Given equal onset time, left-side stimuli are perceived to occur before right-side stimuli when a small number (1, 2) is processed, whereas right-side stimuli are perceived to occur before left-side stimuli when a larger number (8, 9) is processed. In addition, we show that this attentional effect is specific to quantity processing and does not generalize to non-numerical ordinal sequences.     

The effect of temporal delay and spatial differences on cross-modal object recognition

In a series of experiments, we investigated the matching of objects across visual and haptic modalities across different time delays and spatial dimensions. In all of the experiments, we used simple L-shaped figures as stimuli that varied in either the x or the y dimension or in both dimensions. In Experiment 1, we found that cross-modal matching performance decreased as a function of the time delay between the presentation of the objects. We found no difference in performance between the visual-haptic (VH) and haptic-visual (HV) conditions. Cross-modal performance was better when objects differed in both the x and y dimensions rather than in one dimension alone. In Experiment 2, we investigated the relative contribution of each modality to performance across different interstimulus delays. We found no differential effect of delay between the HH and VV conditions, although general performance was better for the VV condition than for the HH condition. Again, responses to xy changes were better than changes in the x or y dimensions alone. Finally, in Experiment 3, we examined performance in a matching task with simultaneous and successive presentation conditions. We failed to find any difference between simultaneous and successive presentation conditions. Our findings suggest that the short-term retention of object representations is similar in both the visual and haptic modalities. Moreover, these results suggest that recognition is best within a temporal window that includes simultaneous or rapidly successive presentation of stimuli across the modalities and is also best when objects are more discriminable from each other.     

Blinded by fear? Prior exposure to fearful faces enhances attentional processing of task-irrelevant stimuli

Threatening information has been shown to both capture attention and enhance sensory processing. Recent evidence has also suggested that exposure to fearful stimuli may enhance perceptual processing of subsequently presented information, as well as increase attentional capacity. However, these results are inconsistent with other findings that fearful stimuli reduce task-irrelevant distraction and improve selective attention. Here, we investigated the effect of prior exposure to fearful faces on performance in the Eriksen flanker task. Across experiments, fearful cues led to increased task-irrelevant distraction for items positioned across visual space, in contrast to other emotional expressions and inverted face items, and under conditions of attentional load. Findings support the view that fearful images enhance attentional capacity, allowing one to attend to as much visual information as possible when danger is implied. Conflicting findings on the effect of fear and selective attention are discussed.     

Temporal constraints on the McGurk effect

Three experiments are reported on the influence of different timing relations on the McGurk effect. In the first experiment, it is shown that strict temporal synchrony between auditory and visual speech stimuli is not required for the McGurk effect. Subjects were strongly influenced by the visual stimuli when the auditory stimuli lagged the visual stimuli by as much as 180 msec. In addition, a stronger McGurk effect was found when the visual and auditory vowels matched. In the second experiment, we paired auditory and visual speech stimuli produced under different speaking conditions (fast, normal, clear). The results showed that the manipulations in both the visual and auditory speaking conditions independently influenced perception. In addition, there was a small but reliable tendency for the better matched stimuli to elicit more McGurk responses than unmatched conditions. In the third experiment, we combined auditory and visual stimuli produced under different speaking conditions (fast, clear) and delayed the acoustics with respect to the visual stimuli. The subjects showed the same pattern of results as in the second experiment. Finally, the delay did not cause different patterns of results for the different audiovisual speaking style combinations. The results suggest that perceivers may be sensitive to the concordance of the time-varying aspects of speech but they do not require temporal coincidence of that information.     

Better late than never: how onsets and offsets influence prior entry and exit

The three experiments presented in the paper examine visual prior entry (determining which of two stimuli appeared first) and prior exit (determining which of two stimuli disappeared first) effects with a temporal order judgment (TOJ) task. In addition to using onset and offset targets, the preceding cues also consisted of either onset or offset stimuli. Typical, and equivalent, prior entry effects were found when either onset or offset cues preceded the onset targets. Unexpectedly large prior exit effects where found with the offset targets, with offset cues producing greater capture effects than onset cues. These findings are consistent with the notion that more attention is allocated to searching the visual field when targets are more difficult to find. In addition, the results indicate that attentional control settings may be more likely to occur with more difficult searches. In addition, these findings demonstrate that TOJ tasks provide extremely precise measures of the allocation of attention and are very sensitive to a range of task manipulations.     

Visual impressions of forces between objects: Entraining,enforced disintegration,and shattering

When a moving object (A) contacts a stationary one (B) and Object B then moves, visual impressions of force occur along with a visual impression of causality. It is shown that findings about force impressions that occur with launching effect stimuli generalize to other forms of phenomenal causality, namely entraining, enforced disintegration, and shattering stimuli. In particular, evidence is reported for generality of the force asymmetry, in which the amount of perceived force exerted by Object A is greater than the amount of perceived resistance put up by Object B. Effects of manipulations of kinematic variables also resembled those found in previous experiments. Some unpredicted findings occurred. It is argued that these reflect a change in perceptual interpretation when both objects are in motion prior to contact, due to both objects being perceived as in autonomous motion. The results are consistent with a theoretical account in which force impressions occur by a process of matching kinematic information in visual stimuli to stored representations of actions on objects, which supply information about forces.     

The suppression of reflexive visual and auditory orienting when attention is otherwise engaged

Two experiments were conducted to examine whether abrupt onsets are capable of reflexively capturing attention when they occur outside the current focus of spatial attention, as would be expected if exogenous orienting operates in a truly automatic fashion. The authors established a highly focused attentional state by means of the central presentation of a stream of visual or auditory characters, which participants sometimes had to monitor. No intramodal reflexive cuing effects were observed in either audition or vision when participants performed either an exogenous visual or auditory orthogonal cuing task together with the central focused attention task. These results suggest that reflexive unimodal orienting is not truly automatic. The fact that cuing effects were eliminated under both unimodal and cross-modal conditions is consistent with the view that auditory and visual reflexive spatial orienting are controlled by a common underlying neural substrate.     

The mere exposure effect for consumer products as a consequence of existing familiarity and controlled exposure

The finding that repeated exposure to a stimulus enhances attitudes directed towards it is a well-established phenomenon. Despite this, the effects of exposure to products are difficult to determine given that they could have previously been exposed to participants any number of times. Furthermore, factors other than simple repeated exposure can influence affective evaluations for stimuli that are meaningful. In our first study, we examined the influence of existing familiarity with common objects and showed that the attractiveness of shapes representing common objects increases with their rated commonness. In our second study, we eliminated the effects of prior exposure by creating fictitious yet plausible products; thus, exposure frequency was under complete experimental control. We also manipulated the attention to be drawn to the products' designs by placing them in contexts where their visual appearance was stressed to be important versus contexts in which it was indicated that little attention had been paid to their design. Following mere exposure, attractiveness ratings increased linearly with exposure frequency, with the slope of the function being steeper for stimuli presented in an inconspicuous context—indicating that individuals engage in more deliberate processing of the stimuli when attention is drawn to their visual appearance.     

The role of executive attention in object substitution masking

It was long thought that a key characteristic of object substitution masking (OSM) was the requirement for spatial attention to be dispersed for the mask to impact visual sensitivity. However, recent studies have provided evidence questioning whether spatial attention interacts with OSM magnitude, suggesting that the previous reports reflect the impact of performance being at ceiling for the low attention load conditions. Another technique that has been employed to modulate attention in OSM paradigms involves presenting the target stimulus foveally, but with another demanding task shown immediately prior, and thus taxing executive/temporal attention. Under such conditions, when the two tasks occur in close temporal proximity relatively to greater temporal separation, masking is increased. However this effect could also be influenced by performance being at ceiling in some conditions. Here, we manipulated executive attention for a foveated target using a dual-task paradigm. Critically, ceiling performance was avoided by thresholding the target stimulus prior to it being presented under OSM conditions. We found no evidence for an interaction between executive attention load and masking. Collectively, along with the previous findings, our results provide compelling evidence that OSM as a phenomenon occurs independently of attention.     

SPLITTING THE BEAM:

Abstract— In an effort to examine the flexibility with which attention can be allocated in visual space, we investigated whether subjects could selectively attend to multiple noncontiguous locations in the visual field We examined this issue by perching two separate areas of the visual field and requiring subjects to decide whether the letters that appeared in these locations matched or mismatched while distracters that pinned either the match or mismatch response were presented between the cued locations. If the distracters had no effect on performance, it would provide evidence that subjects can divide attention over noncontiguous areas of space. Subjects were able to ignore the distracters when the targets and distracters were presented as nooses stimuli (i e, when premises were changed into the targets and distracters). In contrast, when the targets and distracters were presented as sudden-onset stimuli, subjects were unable to ignore the distracters. These results begin to define the conditions under which attention can be flexibly deployed to multiple noncontiguous locations in the visual field.     

Eighteen-month-olds’ ability to make gaze predictions following distraction or a long delay

The abilities to flexibly allocate attention, select between conflicting stimuli, and make anticipatory gaze movements are important for young children's exploration and learning about their environment. These abilities constitute voluntary control of attention and show marked improvements in the second year of a child's life. Here we investigate the effects of visual distraction and delay on 18-month-olds’ ability to predict the location of an occluded target in an experiment that requires switching of attention, and compare their performance to that of adults. Our results demonstrate that by 18 months of age children can readily overcome a previously learned response, even under a condition that involves visual distraction, but have difficulties with correctly updating their prediction when presented with a longer time delay. Further, the experiment shows that, overall, the 18-month-olds’ allocation of visual attention is similar to that of adults, the primary difference being that adults demonstrate a superior ability to maintain attention on task and update their predictions over a longer time period.