Anxiety and selective attention in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Recently, there has been increasing evidence for information-processing deficits in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). While impairments in selective attention have been identified to be central to the symptomatology of OCD, the role that situational anxiety plays in attentional processes has not been fully explored. Previous research findings were limited to tasks containing anxiety-relevant materials, only permitting for the evaluation of the impact of anxiety on simultaneous cognitive processing. Furthermore, it has not yet been determined whether the impact of anxiety is limited to selective attention or is indicative of a more general cognitive impairment. This study was designed to examine the role that situational anxiety plays in selective attention impairments. OCD participants and controls were presented with an anxiety producing statement and a neutral statement, followed by the Stroop Task. Results indicated that situational anxiety plays a significant role in the performance of tasks that require selective attention in OCD. A significant deterioration was detected in performance on selective attention tasks for the OCD participants after confronting anxiety-provoking scenarios, as compared to neutral scenarios. Anxiety did not impair performance on simple reading tasks. Possible explanations are discussed.     

参照性交流双方学习过程与选择性注意的比较

研究以大学生为被试,采用参照性交流范式,设计虚拟学习材料并创设功能预测和维度选择任务,探查比较参照性交流双方学习过程与选择性注意特点。结果发现：与低分组比较,高分组从学习阶段2开始得分显著更高;且维度选择整体结果显著优于低分组,这主要表现在对无关维度的抑制水平显著更高。结果表明：参照性交流双方的学习过程表现出不平衡性;参照性交流双方的选择性注意整体水平表现出不平衡性,具体表现于选择性注意的集中性水平。     

关系复杂性对关系类别间接性学习中选择性注意的影响

以大学生为被试,使用关系复杂性逐渐变化的实验材料——4特征复杂关系的虚拟外星生物、6特征复杂关系加二阶同功能简单关系的虚拟外星生物和6特征复杂关系加二阶异功能简单关系的虚拟外星生物,采用类别的间接性学习范式——个人功能预测的关系类别的间接性学习条件和参照性交流的关系类别的间接性学习条件,通过三个实验任务（功能预测、自由分类和维度选择）,探讨材料关系复杂性对关系类别间接性学习中选择性注意的影响。结果发现：随着关系复杂性的逐渐增高,被试的选择性注意水平不存在显著差异,但选择性注意的指向性存在极其显著差异,选择性注意的集中性（对无关维度的抑制）不存在显著差异;参照条件下被试选择性注意水平极其显著地高于个人条件,这种差异主要表现在选择性注意的指向性方面,而不表现在选择性注意的集中性（对无关维度的抑制）方面。     

Multimodal intervention program to improve attention deficits

Is it possible to learn to attend? The purpose of this article is to provide information about the development, administration, and contrast of an intervention program to improve selective and sustained attention in students from 5 to 19 years of age, all attending school, and with difficulties to learn the academic materials corresponding to their age. Two groups participated in the study: one with difficulties in selective attention and the other with difficulties in sustained attention. The group with selective attention difficulties was made up of 102 students, of whom 59 made up the experimental group and 43 the control group. The group of students with difficulties in sustained attention was made up of 106 students, of whom 58 participated as the experimental group and 48 as the control group. The results indicate that this kind of intervention (which combines visual therapy, cortical activation, and training with activity banks) is effective to improve attentional deficits, both at the level of selective attention and of sustained attention.     

A Research Tool to Increase Attention to Experimental Materials: Manipulating Presentation Format

Experimental approaches require researchers in a variety of applied business disciplines to design experimental materials. This research is often busy and difficult to secure high-level professionals; thus, researchers must ensure sufficient attention to experimental materials to provide usable data. The current study suggests an experimental design feature to encourage participants to thoroughly process information contained in experimental materials. Based on Reynolds' (1992) selective attention strategy (SAS) model, variations in presentation format were expected to influence the relative salience of information presented. Two aspects of presentation format were manipulated to increase salience: display (paragraph vs. bullet point) and typeface (standard vs. bold underlined). Results indicate display improved ability to retrieve information, but typeface did not. Implications for the design of experimental materials are discussed.     

The development of visual and auditory selective attention using the central-incidental paradigm

Analogous auditory and visual central-incidental learning tasks were administered to 24 second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade and college-age subjects to study the effects of modality of presentation on memory for central and incidental stimulus materials. There was no strong evidence to indicate that modality of presentation was an important factor in the development of selective attention. Central task learning increased with age for both auditory and visual presentations; incidental learning declined at the oldest age level for both auditory and visual tasks. The serial position analysis revealed that the observed developmental increase in recall performance was due primarily to differences in the initial serial positions. The use of active strategies for focusing attention on the relevant stimulus materials seemed to be the crucial determinant of level of performance.     

Explicit memory in anxiety disorders

Two experiments were conducted to study selective memory bias favoring anxiety-relevant materials in patients with anxiety disorders. In the 1st experiment, 32 patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), 30 with social phobia (speaking anxiety), and 31 control participants incidentally learned GAD-relevant words, speech anxiety-relevant words, strongly pleasant words, and words with a neutral valence. Participants did not show any explicit memory bias for threatening materials. Thirty patients suffering from panic disorder (PD) with agoraphobia and 30 controls took part in the 2nd experiment. The design was similar to the 1st experiment. This time a highly specific selective memory bias for threatening words was found. Words describing symptoms of anxiety were better recalled by PD patients. Results are consistent with previous findings but are inexplicable by existing theories.     

抑制范式下的情绪注意偏向

与中性信息相比,情绪信息会引起更快更多的注意并具有一种认知加工上的优先权.在注意实验中,与不带情绪色彩的刺激相比,具有情绪意义的刺激更能吸引注意或占用注意资源且引起注意偏向.个体对情绪信息的适度偏向具有重要的社会生活意义.本文介绍了情绪注意偏向的注意成分理论、图式理论、注意资源理论和平行分布处理(PDP)模型,并分别对抑制范式下以不同情绪材料展开的正常被试和特殊被试的情绪注意偏向研究进行了总结概括,同时指出了未来在抑制范式下利用ERPs、fMRI新技术研究不同被试群体情绪与注意关系的可能性.     

参照性交流双方学习效果和选择性注意的比较*

以144名大学生为被试,采用参照性交流范式,设计复杂性不同的材料,创设功能预测和维度选择任务,探查比较参照性交流双方学习效果与选择性注意特点。结果高成绩组block10成绩显著高于低成绩组,关系复杂性主效应显著,参照性交流双方维度选择结果不存在显著差异,关系复杂性影响维度选择的整体结果、有关维度选择结果。表明：双方学习效果不平衡,但选择性注意协调一致,均不受复杂性影响。     

Processing of unattended visual information

A visual analog of auditory selective attention paradigms is described. Using that analog, we examined the amount of processing required to monitor unattended information. With the materials used, there was no evidence that any processing capacity was required to monitor the unattended information. Memory for the unattended information and the recognition of one’s name were examined to provide additional evidence concerning the fate of the unattended information.     

工作记忆与选择性注意的交互关系

综述了近年来工作记忆和选择性注意交互关系的一系列研究。研究者们主要从两个方面对该领域的问题进行了探讨：（1）工作记忆在选择性注意中的作用,主要涉及工作记忆的内容在选择性注意的注意导向中的作用、在晚期反应选择中的作用以及在视觉搜索和返回抑制中的作用等方面;（2）选择性注意在工作记忆的信息维持和更新中的作用,主要涉及空间注意在空间工作记忆的复述机制中的作用、注意的分心物加工机制对工作记忆的影响以及在记忆表征中的选择性注意等方面     

小学教师选择注意与洞察力对课堂信息知觉的影响

选择注意和洞察力在教师课堂信息加工过程中起着十分重要的作用.本研究基于以往教师教学专长发展的理论,对选择注意与洞察力对教师课堂信息知觉加工速度与辨别力进行探讨.研究结果表明:选择注意与洞察力呈现显著正相关;选择性编码与选择性比较对课堂信息加工速度起着重要的作用;选择注意对教师课堂信息判断的正确率起着重要的作用;选择性联合对三类课堂信息加工速度与辨别力的影响均不显著.     

Selective attention and attention switching: towards a unified developmental approach

We review and relate two literatures on the development of attention in children: one concerning flexible attention switching and the other concerning selective attention. The first is a growing literature on preschool children’s performances in an attention‐switching task indicating that children become more flexible in their attentional control during the preschool years. The second literature encompasses a large and robust set of phenomena for the same developmental period that indicates a protracted course of development for selective attention in children. We ask whether developmental changes in processes of selective attention may contribute to more flexible attention switching. We consider the two sets of phenomena with respect to this question and propose an empirical agenda for their joint study that may lead ultimately to a unified account of the development of selective attention and attention switching.     

Is there implicit memory without attention? A reexamination of task demands in Eich’s (1984) procedure

The relation between memory and attention has been of long-standing interest. Eich (1984) made an important discovery of implicit but not explicit memory for contextually determined homophones (e.g., taxi-FARE) presented in a channel to be ignored within a selective listening procedure. However, his slow rate of presentation of shadowing task materials may have allowed frequent attention shifts to the allegedly ignored channel. With a direct replication of Eich’s timing parameters, we reproduced his results, but when the attended channel was presented twice as fast as Eich’s, implicit memory for the to-be-ignored words vanished. Our results contradict claims of extensive semantic processing of unattended auditory information in this task.     

Now you see it, now you don't: evidence for age-dependent and age-independent cross-modal distraction

Age-related deficits in selective attention have often been demonstrated in the visual modality and, to a lesser extent, in the auditory modality. In contrast, a mounting body of evidence has suggested that cross-modal selective attention is intact in aging, especially in visual tasks that require ignoring the auditory modality. Our goal in this study was to investigate age-related differences in the ability to ignore cross-modal auditory and visual distraction and to assess the role of cognitive control demands thereby. In a set of two experiments, 30 young (mean age = 23.3 years) and 30 older adults (mean age = 67.7 years) performed a visual and an auditory n-back task (0 ≤ n ≤ 2), with and without cross-modal distraction. The results show an asymmetry in cross-modal distraction as a function of sensory modality and age: Whereas auditory distraction did not disrupt performance on the visual task in either age group, visual distraction disrupted performance on the auditory task in both age groups. Most important, however, visual distraction was disproportionately larger in older adults. These results suggest that age-related distraction is modality dependent, such that suppression of cross-modal auditory distraction is preserved and suppression of cross-modal visual distraction is impaired in aging.     

选择性注意与视觉空间工作记忆的交互作用

传统上只是从单方面讨论了选择性注意与视觉空间工作记忆之间的关系,即认为注意选择有限信息以进入工作记忆。近期的一些研究发现,视觉空间工作记忆的内容影响选择性注意的分配,注意选择工作记忆中保持的空间或物体表征,选择性注意对于正确保持空间或物体信息是必需的认知调节。文章最后指出,关于选择性注意与视觉空间工作记忆交互作用的研究为将来进一步揭示基于空间与基于物体的注意选择之间的交互作用关系提供了一个很好的途径。     

小学生选择性注意能力发展的研究

本研究采用注意线索范式对小学生视觉选择性注意的发展及其影响因素进行了研究.被试为小学一、三、五年级学生,研究主要考察分心物数量、线索有效性和目标新异性对小学生注意发展的影响.研究结果表明:(1)小学三年级(8~9岁)儿童表现出显著的注意阶段性波动,该结果与国外研究有一定的一致性,也有待于进一步研究证实;(2)小学阶段儿童在相同任务上的选择注意加工速度比成人慢300~1100ms;(3)分心物数量、线索有效性和目标新异性对儿童选择注意发展的影响与成人的结论一致,而且呈现持续发展趋势.     

Selective attention in cerebral palsied and normal children

Noninstitutionalized, educable retarded, spastic cerebral palsied children of two mental age (MA) levels were compared with normal MA controls on a task measuring selective attention and were not found deficient in selective attention. For both the cerebral palsied and the normals there was an increase in selective attention efficiency with an increase in MA. The results support the position that MA rather than chronological age or IQ is the important variable in determining selective attention performance. The results do not support the attention-deficit theory; they do support the argument that institutionalization has a negative affect on attention. The effects of brain damage and retardation on selective attention ability were discussed.Thanks are expressed to Eleanor Rennie, Head Teacher, Robert Massie, Supervisor of Special Education, and E. F. DeFord, Assistant Director, Department of Research for the Richmond Public Schools, Richmond, Virginia. Appreciation is also given to Scott Hamrick, Principal, Jackson Via Elementary School, Charlottesville, Virginia. Susan Autrey is also thanked for assistance in data collection.     

Associations Among Selective Attention, Memory Bias, Cognitive Errors and Symptoms of Anxiety in Youth

The purpose of this study was to examine the linkages among selective attention, memory bias, cognitive errors, and anxiety problems by testing a model of the interrelations among these cognitive variables and childhood anxiety disorder symptoms. A community sample of 81 youth (38 females and 43 males) aged 9-17 years and their parents completed measures of the child's anxiety disorder symptoms. Youth completed assessments measuring selective attention, memory bias, and cognitive errors. Results indicated that selective attention, memory bias, and cognitive errors were each correlated with childhood anxiety problems and provide support for a cognitive model of anxiety which posits that these three biases are associated with childhood anxiety problems. Only limited support for significant interrelations among selective attention, memory bias, and cognitive errors was found. Finally, results point towards an effective strategy for moving the assessment of selective attention to younger and community samples of youth.     

重读对口语理解中时间选择性注意分配的影响

采用事件相关电位（ERP）技术来研究重读如何影响口语加工中早期的选择性注意分配。并进一步研究重读的这种注意调控作用是否受声调的影响。实验以单个句子为实验材料,结果发现重读比不重读条件下的关键词更早的引起一个早期负波（N1）,并且引起更大的N400。在两个时间窗口重读的效应都不受声调的调控。这些结果表明,在自然的口语理解过程中,重读能够快速的调控早期选择性注意的分配,并影响接下来的语义加工的深度。